As part of the effort to understand the flow and transport characteristics downgradient from the proposed high-level radioactive waste geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, single- and cross-holetracertests were conducted from December 2004 through October 2005 in boreholes at the Nye County 22 well complex. The results were analyzed for transport properties using both numerical and analytical solutions of the governing advection dispersion equation. Preliminary results indicate effective flow porosity values ranging from 1.0 x 10{sup -2} for an individual flow path to 2.0 x 10{sup -1} for composite flow paths, longitudinal dispersivity ranging from 0.3 to 3 m, and a transverse horizontal dispersivity of 0.03 m. Individual flow paths identified from the cross-holetesting indicate some solute diffusion into the stagnant portion of the alluvial aquifer.

As part of the effort to understand the flow and transport characteristics downgradient from the proposed high-level radioactive waste geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, single- and cross-holetracertests were conducted from December 2004 through October 2005 in boreholes at the Nye County 22 well complex. The results were analyzed for transport properties using both numerical and analytical solutions of the governing advection dispersion equation. Preliminary results indicate effective flow porosity values ranging from 1.0 ?? 10-2 for an individual flow path to 2.0 ?? 10 -1 for composite flow paths, longitudinal dispersivity ranging from 0.3 to 3 m, and a transverse horizontal dispersivity of 0.03 m. Individual flow paths identified from the cross-holetesting indicate some solute diffusion into the stagnant portion of the alluvial aquifer.

Cross-hole slug test date are analyzed with an extended version of a recently published unconfined aquifer model accounting for waterable effects using the linearized kinematic condition. The use of cross-hole slug test data to characterize aquifer heterogeneity and source/observation well oscillation parameters is evaluated. The data were collected in a series of multi-well and multi-level pneumatic slug tests conducted at a site in Widen, Switzerland. Furthermore, the tests involved source and observation well pairs separated by distances of up to 4 m, and instrumented with pressure transducers to monitor aquifer response in discrete intervals.

We present preliminary results from the first cross-holetracer injection experiment in the volcanic ocean crust. The test site is on 3.5 to 3.6 M.y. old seafloor on the eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Six borehole subseafloor observatories (CORKs) were installed during three scientific ocean drilling expeditions, five arrayed along a 1 km profile aligned with the strike of underlying abyssal hills (Holes 1026B, 1301A/B, and 1362A/B), and one offset 2.4 km to the east (1027C). Before installing the sixth CORK in Hole 1362B, in 2010, we injected a mixture of tracers (dissolved gas, metal salts, particles) during 24 hours into the upper ocean crust. Seafloor samplers connected CORKs, sampling from different locations in the crust, were recovered during servicing expeditions in 2011 and 2013; downhole samplers that contain records from the full four years following tracer injection will be recovered in Summer 2014. Analyses of dissolved gas tracers collected with wellhead samplers through 2013 suggest that the dominant flow direction in upper basement is south to north, as inferred from regional thermal data and the chemistry of geochemical (pore fluid and borehole) samples. The apparent tracer flow rate in upper basement is on the order of meters/day, but calculations are complicated by an incomplete CORK seal in Hole 1301A, which resulted in discharge from this system that also "pulled" water and tracer to the south. Samples were collected from the tracer injection borehole, Hole 1362B, and a sampling site 200 m to the north, Hole 1362A, beginning one year after tracer injection, after opening a large-diameter ball valve on the wellhead of Hole 1362B to initiate a long-term free flow experiment. Analyses of these samples suggest that much of the tracer injected in 2010 remained close to Hole 1362B rather than being advected and dispersed into the formation. It also appears that much of the tracer transport to Hole 1362A occurred within one or more

A modified version of a published slug test model for unconfined aquifers is applied to cross-hole slug test data collected in field tests conducted at the Widen site in Switzerland. The model accounts for water-table effects using the linearized kinematic condition. The model also accounts for inertial effects in source and observation wells. The primary objective of this work is to demonstrate applicability of this semi-analytical model to multi-well and multi-level pneumatic slug tests. The pneumatic perturbation was applied at discrete intervals in a source well and monitored at discrete vertical intervals in observation wells. The source and observation well pairs were separated by distances of up to 4 m. The analysis yielded vertical profiles of hydraulic conductivity, specific storage, and specific yield at observation well locations. The hydraulic parameter estimates are compared to results from prior pumping and single-well slug tests conducted at the site, as well as to estimates from particle size analyses of sediment collected from boreholes during well installation. The results are in general agreement with results from prior tests and are indicative of a sand and gravel aquifer. Sensitivity analysis show that model identification of specific yield is strongest at late-time. However, the usefulness of late-time data is limited due to the low signal-to-noise ratios.

Numerous field, laboratory, and modeling studies have explored the flows of fluid, heat, and solutes during seafloor hydrothermal circulation, but it has been challenging to determine transport rates and flow directions within natural systems. Here we present results from the first cross-holetracer experiment in the upper oceanic crust, using four subseafloor borehole observatories equipped with autonomous samplers to track the transport of a dissolved tracer (sulfur hexafluoride, SF6) injected into a ridge-flank hydrothermal system. During the first three years after tracer injection, SF6 was transported both north and south through the basaltic aquifer. The observed tracer transport rate of ∼2-3 m/day is orders of magnitude greater than bulk rates of flow inferred from thermal and chemical observations and calculated with coupled fluid-heat flow simulations. Taken together, these results suggest that the effective porosity of the upper volcanic crust through which much tracer was transported is <1%, with fluid flowing rapidly along a few well-connected channels. This is consistent with the heterogeneous (layered, faulted, and/or fractured) nature of the volcanic upper oceanic crust.

We describe selected pressure and pressure derivative type-curve analyses of single and cross-hole pneumatic injection tests recently completed in unsaturated fractured tuffs at the Apache Leap Research Site (ALRS) near Superior, Arizona. Type curve analyses of transient data from single-hole tests yield information about air permeability, skin factor, borehole storage, phenomenology and dimensionality of the flow regime on a nominal scale of 1 m in the vicinity of each test interval. We find that transient air permeabilities agree well with steady state values but correlate poorly with fracture density. Larger scale cross-hole pneumatic tests were conducted by injecting air into a relatively short borehole interval of length 1-2 m, while monitoring air pressure and temperature in the injection interval; barometric pressure, air temperature and relative humidity at the surface; as well as air pressure and temperature in 13 short (0.5-2 m) and 24 longer (4-20 m) intervals within the injection and surrounding boreholes. We discuss one of these tests labeled PP4. Analyses of pressure data from individual monitoring intervals yield information about pneumatic connections between the injection and monitoring intervals, corresponding directional air permeabilities, and air-filled porosities. All of these quantities vary considerably from one monitoring interval to another on scales ranging from a few meters to well over 20 meters. Together with the results of earlier site investigations our single and cross-holetest analyses reveal that, at the ALRS, a) the pneumatic pressure behavior of fractured tuff is amenable to analysis by methods that treat the rock as a continuum on scales ranging from meters to tens of meters; b) this continuum is representative primarily of interconnected fractures; c) its pneumatic properties vary strongly with location, direction and scale; in particular, the mean of pneumatic permeabilities increases, and their variance decreases, with

Tracertests often give ambiguous interpretations that may be due to the erroneous location of sampling points and/or the lack of flow rate measurements through the sampler. To obtain more reliable tracertest results, we propose a methodology that optimizes the design and analysis of tracertests in a cross borehole mode by using vertical borehole flow rate measurements. Experiments using this approach, herein defined as the Bh-flow tracertest, have been performed by implementing three sequential steps: (1) single-hole flowmeter test, (2) cross-hole flowmeter test, and (3) tracertest. At the experimental site, core logging, pumping tests, and static water-level measurements were previously carried out to determine stratigraphy, fracture characteristics, and bulk hydraulic conductivity. Single-hole flowmeter testing makes it possible to detect the presence of vertical flows as well as inflow and outflow zones, whereas cross-hole flowmeter testing detects the presence of connections along sets of flow conduits or discontinuities intercepted by boreholes. Finally, the specific pathways and rates of groundwater flow through selected flowpaths are determined by tracertesting. We conclude that the combined use of single and cross-borehole flowmeter tests is fundamental to the formulation of the tracertest strategy and interpretation of the tracertest results. PMID:25417730

When a reservoir is studied in detail for an EOR project, well-to-well tracers should be used as a tool to help understand the reservoir in a quantitative way. Tracers complement the more traditional reservoir evaluation tools. This paper discusses the concepts underlying tracertesting, the analysis methods used to produce quantitative results, and the meaning of these results in terms of conceptual picture of the reservoir. Some of the limitations of these analysis methods are discussed, along with ongoing research on tracer flow.

Conducting a successful tracertest requires adhering to a set of steps. The steps include identifying appropriate and achievable test goals, identifying tracers with the appropriate properties, and implementing the test as designed. When these steps are taken correctly, a host of tracertest analysis methods are available to the practitioner. This report discusses the individual steps required for a successful tracertest and presents methods for analysis. The report is an overview of tracer technology; the Suggested Reading section offers references to the specifics of test design and interpretation.

The thermal stability and adsorption characteristics of three perfluorinated hydrocarbon compounds were evaluated under geothermal conditions to determine the potential to use these compounds as conservative or thermally-degrading tracers in Engineered (or Enhanced) Geothermal Systems (EGS). The three compounds tested were perfluorodimethyl-cyclobutane (PDCB), perfluoromethylcyclohexane (PMCH), and perfluorotrimethylcyclohexane (PTCH), which are collectively referred to as perfluorinated tracers, or PFTs. Two sets of duplicate tests were conducted in batch mode in gold-bag reactors, with one pair of reactors charged with a synthetic geothermal brine containing the PFTs and a second pair was charged with the brine-PFT mixture plus a mineral assemblage chosen to be representative of activated fractures in an EGS reservoir. A fifth reactor was charged with deionized water containing the three PFTs. The experiments were conducted at {approx}100 bar, with temperatures ranging from 230 C to 300 C. Semi-analytical and numerical modeling was also conducted to show how the PFTs could be used in conjunction with other tracers to interrogate surface area to volume ratios and temperature profiles in EGS reservoirs. Both single-well and cross-holetracertests are simulated to illustrate how different suites of tracers could be used to accomplish these objectives. The single-well tests are especially attractive for EGS applications because they allow the effectiveness of a stimulation to be evaluated without drilling a second well.

Tracertests conducted at geothermal well doublets or triplets in the Upper Rhine Rift Valley [1] all face, with very few exceptions so far, one common issue: lack of conclusive tracertest results, or tracer signals still undetectable for longer than one or two years after tracer injection. While the reasons for this surely differ from site to site (Riehen, Landau, Insheim, Bruchsal, ...), its effects on how the usefulness of tracertests is perceived by the non-tracer community are pretty much the same. The 'poor-signal' frustration keeps nourishing two major 'alternative' endeavours : (I) design and execute tracertests in single-well injection-withdrawal (push-pull), 'instead of' inter-well flow-path tracing configurations; (II) use 'novel' tracer substances instead of the 'old' ones which have 'obviously failed'. Frustration experienced with most inter-well tracertests in the Upper Rhine Rift Valley has also made them be regarded as 'maybe useful for EGS' ('enhanced', or 'engineered' geothermal systems, whose fluid RTD typically include a major share of values below one year), but 'no longer worthwhile a follow-up sampling' in natural, large-scale hydrothermal reservoirs. We illustrate some of these arguments with the ongoing Bruchsal case [2]. The inter-well tracertest conducted at Bruchsal was (and still is!) aimed at assessing inter-well connectivity, fluid residence times, and characterizing the reservoir structure [3]. Fluid samples taken at the geothermal production well after reaching a fluid turnover of about 700,000 m3 showed tracer concentrations in the range of 10-8 Minj per m3, in the liquid phase of each sample (Minj being the total quantity of tracer injected as a short pulse at the geothermal re-injection well). Tracer signals might actually be higher, owing to tracer amounts co-precipitated and/or adsorbed onto the solid phase whose accumulation in the samples was unavoidable (due to pressure relief and degassing during the very sampling

Recent advances in borehole geophysical techniques have improved characterization of cross-hole fracture flow. The direct detection of preferential flow paths in fractured rock, however, remains to be resolved. In this study, a novel approach using nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI or `nano-iron') as a tracer was developed for detecting fracture flow paths directly. Generally, only a few rock fractures are permeable while most are much less permeable. A heat-pulse flowmeter can be used to detect changes in flow velocity for delineating permeable fracture zones in the borehole and providing the design basis for the tracertest. When nano-iron particles are released in an injection well, they can migrate through the connecting permeable fracture and be attracted to a magnet array when arriving in an observation well. Such an attraction of incoming iron nanoparticles by the magnet can provide quantitative information for locating the position of the tracer inlet. A series of field experiments were conducted in two wells in fractured rock at a hydrogeological research station in Taiwan, to test the cross-hole migration of the nano-iron tracer through permeable connected fractures. The fluid conductivity recorded in the observation well confirmed the arrival of the injected nano-iron slurry. All of the iron nanoparticles attracted to the magnet array in the observation well were found at the depth of a permeable fracture zone delineated by the flowmeter. This study has demonstrated that integrating the nano-iron tracertest with flowmeter measurement has the potential to characterize preferential flow paths in fractured rock.

Hydrological tracertesting is the most reliable diagnostic technique available for establishing flow trajectories and hydrologic connections and for determining basic hydraulic and geometric parameters necessary for establishing operative solute-transport processes. Tracer-test...

In inter-well tracertests (IWTT), chemical compounds or radioactive isotopes are used to label injection water and gas to establish well connections and fluid patterns in petroleum reservoirs. Tracer simulation is an invaluable tool to ease the interpretation of IWTT results and is also required for assisted history matching application of tracer data. In this paper we present a new simulation technique to analyse and interpret tracer results. Laboratory results are used to establish and test formulations of the tracer conservation equations, and the technique is used to provide simulated tracer responses that are compared with observed tracer data from an extensive tracer program. The implemented tracer simulation methodology use a fast post-processing of previously simulated reservoir simulation runs. This provides a fast, flexible and powerful method for analysing gas tracer behaviour in reservoirs. We show that simulation time for tracers can be reduced by factor 100 compared to solving the tracer flow equations simultaneously with the reservoir fluid flow equations. The post-processing technique, combined with a flexible built-in local tracer-grid refinement is exploited to reduce numerical smearing, particularly severe for narrow tracer pulses.

In recent years geophysical methods have become increasingly popular for hydrological applications. Time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) represents a potentially powerful tool for subsurface solute transport characterization since a full picture of the spatiotemporal evolution of the process can be obtained. However, the quantitative interpretation of tracertests is difficult because of the uncertainty related to the geoelectrical inversion, the constitutive models linking geophysical and hydrological quantities, and the a priori unknown heterogeneous properties of natural formations. Here an approach based on the Lagrangian formulation of transport and the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) data assimilation technique is applied to assess the spatial distribution of hydraulic conductivity K by incorporating time-lapse cross-hole ERT data. Electrical data consist of three-dimensional cross-hole ERT images generated for a synthetic tracertest in a heterogeneous aquifer. Under the assumption that the solute spreads as a passive tracer, for high Peclet numbers the spatial moments of the evolving plume are dominated by the spatial distribution of the hydraulic conductivity. The assimilation of the electrical conductivity 4D images allows updating of the hydrological state as well as the spatial distribution of K. Thus, delineation of the tracer plume and estimation of the local aquifer heterogeneity can be achieved at the same time by means of this interpretation of time-lapse electrical images from tracertests. We assess the impact on the performance of the hydrological inversion of (i) the uncertainty inherently affecting ERT inversions in terms of tracer concentration and (ii) the choice of the prior statistics of K. Our findings show that realistic ERT images can be integrated into a hydrological model even within an uncoupled inverse modeling framework. The reconstruction of the hydraulic conductivity spatial distribution is satisfactory in the portion

The most commonly reported control used to minimize workplace exposures to nanomaterials is the chemical fume hood. Studies have shown, however, that significant releases of nanoparticles can occur when materials are handled inside fume hoods. This study evaluated the performance of a new commercially available nano fume hood using three different test protocols. Tracer gas, tracer nanoparticle, and nanopowder handling protocols were used to evaluate the hood. A static test procedure using tracer gas (sulfur hexafluoride) and nanoparticles as well as an active test using an operator handling nanoalumina were conducted. A commercially available particle generator was used to produce sodium chloride tracer nanoparticles. Containment effectiveness was evaluated by sampling both in the breathing zone (BZ) of a mannequin and operator as well as across the hood opening. These containment tests were conducted across a range of hood face velocities (60, 80, and 100 feet/minute) and with the room ventilation system turned off and on. For the tracer gas and tracer nanoparticle tests, leakage was much more prominent on the left side of the hood (closest to the room supply air diffuser) although some leakage was noted on the right side and in the BZ sample locations. During the tracer gas and tracer nanoparticle tests, leakage was primarily noted when the room air conditioner was on for both the low and medium hood exhaust air flows. When the room air conditioner was turned off, the static tracer gas tests showed good containment across most test conditions. The tracer gas and nanoparticle test results were well correlated showing hood leakage under the same conditions and at the same sample locations. The impact of a room air conditioner was demonstrated with containment being adversely impacted during the use of room air ventilation. The tracer nanoparticle approach is a simple method requiring minimal setup and instrumentation. However, the method requires the reduction in

We propose a new cross-hole imaging approach based on seismoelectric conversions associated with the transmission of seismic waves from seismic sources located in a borehole to receivers electrodes located in a second borehole. The seismoelectric seismic-to-electric problem is solved using Biot theory coupled with a generalized Ohm's law with an electrokinetic coupling term. The components of the displacement of the solid phase, the fluid pressure, and the electrical potential are solved using a finite element approach with PML boundary conditions for the seismic waves and boundary conditions mimicking an infinite material for the electrostatic problem. We have developed an inversion algorithm using the electrical disturbances recorded in the second borehole to localize the position of the heterogeneities responsible for the seismoelectric conversions. Because of the ill-posed nature of the inverse problem, regularization is used to constrain the solution at each time in the seismoelectric time window comprised between the time of the seismic shot and the time of the first arrival of the seismic waves in the second borehole. All the inverted volumetric current source densities are stacked to produce an image of the position of the heterogeneities between the two boreholes. Two simple synthetic case studies are presented to test this concept. The first case study corresponds to a vertical discontinuity between two homogeneous sub-domains. The second case study corresponds to a poroelastic inclusion embedded into an homogenous poroelastic formation. In both cases, the position of the heterogeneity is fairly well-recovered using only the electrical disturbances associated with the seismoelectric conversions. ?? 2011 Society of Exploration Geophysicists.

We propose a cross-hole imaging approach based on seismoelectric conversions (SC) associated with the transmission of seismic waves from seismic sources located in a borehole to receivers (electrodes) located in a second borehole. The seismoelectric (seismic-to-electric) problem is solved using Biot theory coupled with a generalized Ohm's law with an electrokinetic streaming current contribution. The components of the displacement of the solid phase, the fluid pressure, and the electrical potential are solved using a finite element approach with Perfect Match Layer (PML) boundary conditions for the seismic waves and boundary conditions mimicking an infinite material for the electrostatic problem. We develop an inversion algorithm using the electrical disturbances recorded in the second borehole to localize the position of the heterogeneities responsible for the SC. Because of the ill-posed nature of the inverse problem (inherent to all potential-field problems), regularization is used to constrain the solution at each time in the SC-time window comprised between the time of the seismic shot and the time of the first arrival of the seismic waves in the second borehole. All the inverted volumetric current source densities are aggregated together to produce an image of the position of the heterogeneities between the two boreholes. Two simple synthetic case studies are presented to test this concept. The first case study corresponds to a vertical discontinuity between two homogeneous sub-domains. The second case study corresponds to a poroelastic inclusion (partially saturated by oil) embedded into an homogenous poroelastic formation. In both cases, the position of the heterogeneity is recovered using only the electrical disturbances associated with the SC. That said, a joint inversion of the seismic and seismoelectric data could improve these results.

In this paper we present numerical simulations carried out to assess the importance of density-dependent flow on tracer plume development. The scenario considered in the study is characterized by a short-term tracer injection phase into a fully penetrating well and a natural hydraulic gradient. The scenario is thought to be typical for tracertests conducted in the field. Using a reference case as a starting point, different model parameters were changed in order to determine their importance to density effects. The study is based on a three-dimensional model domain. Results were interpreted using concentration contours and a first moment analysis. Tracer injections of 0.036 kg per meter of saturated aquifer thickness do not cause significant density effects assuming hydraulic gradients of at least 0.1%. Higher tracer input masses, as used for geoelectrical investigations, may lead to buoyancy-induced flow in the early phase of a tracertest which in turn impacts further plume development. This also holds true for shallow aquifers. Results of simulations with different tracer injection rates and durations imply that the tracer input scenario has a negligible effect on density flow. Employing model cases with different realizations of a log conductivity random field, it could be shown that small variations of hydraulic conductivity in the vicinity of the tracer injection well have a major control on the local tracer distribution but do not mask effects of buoyancy-induced flow. PMID:16183165

Past research and applications have demonstrated the advantages and usefulness of lidar detection of a single fluorescent tracer to track air motions. Earlier researchers performed an analytical study that showed good potential for lidar discrimination and tracking of two or three different fluorescent tracers at the same time. The present paper summarizes the multiple fluorescent tracer method, discusses its expected advantages and problems, and describes our field test of this new technique.

An approach based on the Lagrangian formulation of transport and the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) is applied to assess the spatial distribution of hydraulic conductivity K by assimilating time-lapse cross-hole electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) images generated for a synthetic tracertest in a heterogeneous aquifer. Assuming that the solute spreads as a passive tracer, for high Peclet numbers the spatial moments of the evolving plume are dominated by the spatial distribution of the hydraulic conductivity. The assimilation of the electrical conductivity 4D images allows updating both the hydrological state in terms of solute concentration and the spatial distribution of K. Thus, delineation of the tracer plume and estimation of the aquifer heterogeneity at the local scale can be achieved at the same time by means of this interpretation of time-lapse electrical images from tracertests. We assess the impact on the performance of the hydrological inversion of the uncertainty inherently affecting ERT inversions in terms of tracer concentration and the choice of the prior statistics of K. The results show that realistic ERT images can be integrated into a hydrological model even within an uncoupled inverse modeling framework, the reconstruction of the hydraulic conductivity spatial distribution being satisfactory in the portion of the domain directly covered by the passage of the tracer. Aside from the issues commonly affecting inverse models, the proposed approach is subject to the problem of the filter inbreeding and the retrieval performance is sensitive to the choice of K prior geostatistical parameters.

A key parameter governing the performance and life-time of a Hot Fractured Rock (HFR) reservoir is the effective heat transfer area between the fracture network and the matrix rock. We report on numerical modeling studies into the feasibility of using tracertests for estimating heat transfer area. More specifically, we discuss simulation results of a new HFR characterization method which uses surface-sorbing tracers for which the adsorbed tracer mass is proportional to the fracture surface area per unit volume. Sorption in the rock matrix is treated with the conventional formulation in which tracer adsorption is volume-based. A slug of solute tracer migrating along a fracture is subject to diffusion across the fracture walls into the adjacent rock matrix. Such diffusion removes some of the tracer from the fluid in the fractures, reducing and retarding the peak in the breakthrough curve (BTC) of the tracer. After the slug has passed the concentration gradient reverses, causing back-diffusion from the rock matrix into the fracture, and giving rise to a long tail in the BTC of the solute. These effects become stronger for larger fracture-matrix interface area, potentially providing a means for estimating this area. Previous field tests and modeling studies have demonstrated characteristic tailing in BTCs for volatile tracers in vapor-dominated reservoirs. Simulated BTCs for solute tracers in single-phase liquid systems show much weaker tails, as would be expected because diffusivities are much smaller in the aqueous than in the gas phase, by a factor of order 1000. A much stronger signal of fracture-matrix interaction can be obtained when sorbing tracers are used. We have performed simulation studies of surface-sorbing tracers by implementing a model in which the adsorbed tracer mass is assumed proportional to the fracture-matrix surface area per unit volume. The results show that sorbing tracers generate stronger tails in BTCs, corresponding to an effective

An analysis of a gas-phase partitioning tracertest conducted through fractured media is discussed within this paper. The analysis employed matching eight simple mathematical models to the experimental data to determine transport parameters. All of the models tested; two porous...

This paper presents the results of a field investigation in the unsaturated, fractured welded tuff within the Exploratory Studies Facility (ESF) at Yucca Mountain, NV. This investigation included a series of tests during which tracer-laced water was released into a high-permeability zone within a horizontal injection borehole. The tracer concentration was monitored in the seepage collected in an excavated slot about 1.6 m below the borehole. Results showed significant variability in the hydrologic response of fractures and the matrix. Analyses of the breakthrough curves suggest that flow and transport pathways are dynamic, rather than fixed, and related to liquid-release rates. Under high release rates, fractures acted as the predominant flow pathways, with limited fracture-matrix interaction. Under low release rates, fracture flow was comparatively less dominant, with a noticeable contribution from matrix flow. Observations of tracer concentrations rebounding in seepage water, following an interruption of flow, provided evidence of mass exchange between the fast-flowing fractures and slow- or non-flowing regions. The tests also showed the applicability of fluorinated benzoate tracers in situations where multiple tracers of similar physical properties are warranted. PMID:11530924

The use of many carbonate-derived geochemical proxies is underpinned by the assumption that tracer elements are incorporated 'ideally' as impurities the mineral lattice, following relatively straightforward kinetic and thermodynamic drives. This allows comparison to inorganic precipitation experiments, and provides a systematic starting point from which to translate geochemical tracers to environmental records. Biomineral carbonates are a prominent source of geochemical proxy material, and are far from an ideal inorganic system. They are structurally and compositionally heterogeneous mineral-organic composites, produced in tightly controlled biological environments, possibly via non-classical crystal growth mechanisms. Biominerals offer numerous opportunities for tracers to be incorporated in a 'non-ideal' state. For instance, tracers could be hosted within the organic component of the structure, in interstitial micro-domains of a separate mineral phase, or in localized high-impurity clusters. If a proxy element is hosted in a non-ideal state, our understanding of its incorporation and preservation is flawed, and the theoretical basis behind the proxies derived from it must be reevaluated. Thus far, the assumption of ideal tracer incorporation has remained largely untested, owing to the spatial resolution and sensitivity limits of available techniques. Developments in high-resolution, high-sensitivity X-ray spectroscopy at Scanning Transmission X-Ray Microscopes (STXMs) have allowed us to measure trace element coordination in foraminiferal calcite, at length-scales relevant to biomineralisation processes and tracer incorporation. This instrument has allowed us to test the fundamental assumptions behind several geochemical proxy elements. We present a summary of four STXM studies, assessing the chemical state and distribution of Mg (Branson et al, 2014), B (Branson et al, 2015), S and Na (unpub.), and highlight the implications of these data for the use of these

In the area of a planned dam site in the southern Black Forest, an observation tunnel with boreholes drilled into an adjacent vertically orientated ore body offered nearly ideal conditions to investigate transport phenomena in a highly permeable fault and fracture zone. The experimental array, consisting of horizontal and inclined boreholes lying within distances of ten to twelve meters apart, gave the opportunity to perform forced gradient tracertests over varying distances under fixed hydraulic boundary conditions. The breakthrough curves of the tracer experiments were analyzed using an adequate transport model. The fitting procedure yielded hydraulic parameters such as fissure and matrix porosities and first estimations of the average fracture aperture.

Artificial tracertests are widely used by consulting engineers for demonstrating water circulation, proving the existence of leakage, or estimating groundwater velocity. However, the interpretation of such tests is often very basic, with the result that decision makers and professionals commonly face unreliable results through hasty and empirical interpretation. There is thus an increasing need for a reliable interpretation tool, compatible with the latest operating systems and available in several languages. BRGM, the French Geological Survey, has developed a project together with hydrogeologists from various other organizations to build software assembling several analytical solutions in order to comply with various field contexts. This computer program, called TRAC, is very light and simple, allowing the user to add his own analytical solution if the formula is not yet included. It aims at collaborative improvement by sharing the tool and the solutions. TRAC can be used for interpreting data recovered from a tracertest as well as for simulating the transport of a tracer in the saturated zone (for the time being). Calibration of a site operation is based on considering the hydrodynamic and hydrodispersive features of groundwater flow as well as the amount, nature and injection mode of the artificial tracer. The software is available in French, English and Spanish, and the latest version can be downloaded from the web site http://trac.brgm.fr">http://trac.brgm.fr.

The main purpose of groundwater inverse modeling lies in estimating the hydraulic-conductivity field of an aquifer. Traditionally, hydraulic-head measurements, possibly obtained in tomographic setups, are used as data. Because the groundwater-flow equation is diffusive, many pumping and observation wells would be necessary to obtain a high resolution of hydraulic conductivity, which is typically not possible. We suggest performing heat-tracertests using the same pumping wells and thermometers in observation planes to amend the hydraulic-head data set by the arrival times of the heat signals. We recommend installing an outer pair of pumping wells, generating artificial ambient flow, and an inner well pair in which the tests are performed. We jointly invert heads and thermal arrival times in 3-D by the quasi-linear geostatistical approach using an efficiently parallelized code running on a mid-range cluster. In the present study, we evaluate the value of heat-tracer versus head data in a synthetic test case, where the estimated fields can be compared to the synthetic truth. Because the sensitivity patterns of the thermal arrival times differ from those of head measurements, a significantly higher resolution of the estimate is obtained by adding the tracer data. Also, in contrast to head measurements, reverting the flow field and repeating the heat-tracertest improves the estimate. Based on the synthetic test case, we recommend performing the tests in four principal directions, requiring in total eight pumping wells and four intersecting observation planes for heads and temperature in each direction.

This work presents the analysis of experimental data obtained on a lab scale fractured geothermal model where matrix block sizes, fracture apertures and distributions are known. The ultimate goal is to obtain the fracture aperture which is a key parameter in determining the flow and transport characteristics of fractured media. For the tracertests, 4,000 ppm potassium iodide solution slug was injected from the corner of the model prepared using seventy stacked marble blocks and production concentration of the tracer was monitored from the other end of the diagonal. Drawdown pressure transient tests were conducted using the same model. Results indicated that flow was mainly through a major fracture path and tracer also entered to this path from auxiliary side fractures. The apparent size of the main fracture path was calculated as average 30 microns and secondary fractures had the average size of 10 microns which was found to be in good agreement with the mechanical aperture of 13.58 microns. The apparent fracture apertures, calculated using the permeability obtained from the well test analysis, changed from 70 microns to 116 microns overestimating the mechanical fracture aperture.

In the injection test described, chemical tracers established the fluid flow between one injection well and one production well. Measured tracer concentrations, calculated flow rates, sampling schedules, and the daily events of the tracertest are documented. This experiment was designed to test the application of organic tracers, to further refine the predictive capability of the reservoir model, and to improve the effectiveness of Oxbow`s injection strategy.

Karstic groundwater is more influenced by human than the groundwater that disperse in pores. On the other hand karstic groundwater resources, in addition to providing agricultural needs, livestock breeding, drinking and domestic water in most of the months of the year, they also supply drinking water to the wild life at high altitudes. Therefore sustainability and hydrogeological investigation of karstic resources is critical. Tracing techniques are widely used in hydrologic and hydrogeologic studies to determine water storage, flow rate, direction and protection area of groundwater resources. Karanfil Mountain (2800 m), located in Adana, Turkey, is one of the karstic recharge areas of the natural springs spread around its periphery. During explorations of the caves of Karanfil mountain, a 600 m deep cave was found by the Turkish and Polish cavers. At the bottom of the cave there is an underground river with a flow rate of approximately 0.5 m3/s during August 2014. The main spring is located 8 km far from the cave's entrance and its mean flow rate changes between 3.4 m3/s and 0.21 m3/s in March and September respectively according to a flowrate observation station of Directorate of Water Works of Turkey. As such frequent storms, snowmelt and normal seasonal variations in rainfall have a significant and rapid effect on the volume of this main spring resource. The objective of our research is to determine and estimate dye amount before its application on the field inspired from the previously literature on the subject. This estimation is intended to provide a preliminary application of a tracertest of a karstic system. In this study dye injection, inlet point will be an underground river located inside the cave and the observation station will be the spring that is approximately 8 km far from the cave entrance. On the other hand there is 600 meter elevation difference between cave entrance and outlet spring. In this test Rodamin-WT will be used as tracer and the

The goal of this specific research task is to develop proxy tracers that mimic contaminant movement to better understand and predict contaminant fate and transport in karst aquifers. Hydrogel tracer beads are transported as a separate phase than water and can used as a proxy tracer to mimic the transport of non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPL). They can be constructed with different densities, sizes & chemical attributes. This poster describes the creation and optimization of the beads and the field testing of buoyant beads, including sampling, tracer analysis, and quantitative analysis. The buoyant beads are transported ahead of the dissolved solutes, suggesting that light NAPL (LNAPL) transport in karst may occur faster than predicted from traditional tracing techniques. The hydrogel beads were successful in illustrating this enhanced transport.

Tunnel construction in urban areas has recently become a topic of interest and has increased the use of tunnel boring machines. Monitoring subsurface effects due to tunnel building in urban areas with conventional surface geophysical techniques is not an easy task because of space constraints. Taking advantage of the construction of a new metro line in Barcelona (Spain), a geoelectrical experiment, which included borehole logging and time-lapse cross-hole measurements using permanent electrode deployments, was designed to characterise and to study the subsurface effects of the tunnel drilling in a test site. We present a case study in which the differences between time-lapse cross-hole resistivity measurements acquired before, during and after the tunnel drilling below the test site have been calculated using three different procedures: a constrained time-lapse inversion, a model subtraction and an inversion of the normalised data ratio. The three procedures have provided satisfactory images of the resistivity changes and tunnel geometry, but resistivity changes for the tunnel void were lower than predicted by modelling. This behaviour has been explained by considering a conductive zone around the tunnel. Further, an apparent resistivity pseudosection for the cross-hole data, equivalent to the case of the equatorial dipole-dipole on the surface, is introduced.

Environmental tracers, as tritium, have been generally used to estimate aquifer recharge under natural conditions. A tritium tracertest to estimate recharge under semi-arid and irrigated conditions is presented. The test was carried out in an experimental plot under drip irrigation, located in SE Spain, with annual row crops (rotation lettuce and melon), following common agricultural practices in open air. Tritiated water was applied as an irrigation pulse, soil cores were taken at different depths and a liquid scintillation analyzer was used to measure the concentration of tritium in soil samples. Transport of tritium was simulated with SOLVEG code, a one-dimensional numerical model for simulating transport of heat, water and tritiated water in liquid and gas phase, which has been modified and adapted for this experience, including ground cover, root growth and root water uptake. One crop has been used to calibrate the modeling approach and other three crops to validate it. Results of flow and transport modelling show a good agreement between observed and estimated tritium concentration profile. For the period October 2007-September 2008, total drainage obtained value was 441 mm.

Four single-well tracertests and a two-well tracertest performed in a 21-m thick confined granular aquifer at a field site near Mobile, Alabama are described. The data from these tests together with previously published data from a single-well test and a two-well test allow one...

Tracertesting is generally regarded as the most reliable and efficient method of gathering surface and subsurface hydraulic information. This is especially true for karstic and fractured-rock aquifers. Qualitative tracing tests have been conventionally employed in most karst s...

A reasonable description of the hydraulic conductivity structure is a prerequisite for modeling contaminant transport. However, formulations of hydrogeological inverse problems utilizing hydrogeological data only often fail to reliably resolve features at a resolution required for accurately predicting transport. Incorporation of geophysical data into the inverse problem offers the potential to increase this resolution. In this study, we invert hydrological tracertest data using the shape and relative magnitude variations derived from geophysical tomographic data to regionalize a hydrogeological inverse problem in order to estimate the hydraulic conductivity structure. Our approach does not require that the petrophysical relationship be known a-priori, but that it is linear and stationary within each geophysical anomaly. However, tomograms are imperfect models of geophysical properties and geophysical properties are not necessarily strongly linked to hydraulic conductivity. Therefore, we focus on synthetic examples where the correlation between radar velocity and hydraulic conductivity, as well as the geophysical data acquisition errors, are varied in order to assess what aspects of the hydraulic conductivity structure we can expect to resolve under different conditions. The results indicate that regularization of the tracer inversion procedure using geophysical data improves estimates of hydraulic conductivity. We find that even under conditions of corrupted geophysical data, we can accurately estimate the effective hydraulic conductivity and areas of high and low hydraulic conductivity. However, given imperfect geophysical data, our results suggest that we cannot expect accurate estimates of the variability of the hydraulic conductivity structure.

requires successive linearization (Gauss-Newton scheme), stabilized by a line-search, and forward simulation in the Laplace domain with numerical back-transformation. Once the hyporheic travel-time distribution p(?) has been identified, the transport model can be extended to include nonlinear reactions of river-borne compound within the hyporheic zone thus facilitating the simulation of biogeochemical cycling in streams undergoing hyporheic exchange. This method has been tested by virtual conservative and reactive tracer experiments undergoing hyporheic exchange. Joint inversion of conservative and reactive tracer BTCs is essential for distinguishing the effects of in-stream dispersion from hyporheic exchange. Applications to field data are on the way.

A recent report found that power and heat produced from enhanced (or engineered) geothermal systems (EGSs) could have a major impact on the U.S energy production capability while having a minimal impact on the environment. EGS resources differ from high-grade hydrothermal resources in that they lack sufficient temperature distribution, permeability/porosity, fluid saturation, or recharge of reservoir fluids. Therefore, quantitative characterization of temperature distributions and the surface area available for heat transfer in EGS is necessary for the design and commercial development of the geothermal energy of a potential EGS site. The goal of this project is to provide integrated tracer and tracer interpretation tools to facilitate this characterization. This project was initially focused on tracer development with the application of perfluorinated tracer (PFT) compounds, non-reactive tracers used in numerous applications from atmospheric transport to underground leak detection, to geothermal systems, and evaluation of encapsulated PFTs that would release tracers at targeted reservoir temperatures. After the 2011 midyear review and subsequent discussions with the U.S. Department of Energy Geothermal Technology Program (GTP), emphasis was shifted to interpretive tool development, testing, and validation. Subsurface modeling capabilities are an important component of this project for both the design of suitable tracers and the interpretation of data from in situ tracertests, be they single- or multi-well tests. The purpose of this report is to describe the results of the tracer and model development for simulating and conducting tracertests for characterizing EGS parameters.

Soil desiccation (drying), involving water evaporation induced by dry air injection and extraction, is a potentially robust remediation process to slow migration of inorganic or radionuclide contaminants through the vadose zone. The application of gas-phase partitioning tracertests has been proposed as a means to estimate initial water volumes and to monitor the progress of the desiccation process at pilot-test and field sites. In this paper, tracertests have been conducted in porous medium columns with various water saturations using sulfur hexafluoride as the conservative tracer and tricholorofluoromethane and difluoromethane as the water-partitioning tracers. For porous media with minimal silt and/or organic matter fractions, tracertests provided reasonable saturation estimates for saturations close to zero. However, for sediments with significant silt and/or organic matter fractions, tracertests only provided satisfactory results when the water saturation was at least 0.1 - 0.2. For dryer conditions, the apparent tracer retardation increases due to air – soil sorption, which is not included in traditional retardation coefficients derived from advection-dispersion equations accounting only for air – water partitioning and water – soil sorption. Based on these results, gas-phase partitioning tracertests may be used to determine initial water volumes in sediments, provided the initial water saturations are sufficiently large. However, tracertests are not suitable for quantifying moisture content in desiccated sediments.

Three conservative tracertests have been conducted through the Bridge Fault fracture zone at the Raft River Geothermal (RRG) site. All three tests were conducted between injection well RRG-5 and production wells RRG-1 (790 m distance) and RRG-4 (740 m distance). The injection well is used during the summer months to provide pressure support to the production wells. The first test was conducted in 2008 using 136 kg of fluorescein tracer. Two additional tracers were injected in 2010. The first 2010 tracer injected was 100 kg fluorescein disodium hydrate salt on June, 21. The second tracer (100 kg 2,6-naphthalene disulfonic acid sodium salt) was injected one month later on July 21. Sampling of the two productions wells is still being performed to obtain the tail end of the second 2010 tracertest. Tracer concentrations were measured using HPLC with a fluorescence detector. Results for the 2008 test, suggest 80% tracer recover at the two production wells. Of the tracer recovered, 85% of tracer mass was recovered in well RRG-4 indicating a greater flow pathway connection between injection well and RRG-4 than RRG-1. Fluorescein tracer results appear to be similar between the 2008 and 2010 tests for well RRG-4 with peak concentrations arriving approximately 20 days after injection despite the differences between the injection rates for the two tests (~950 gpm to 475 gpm) between the 2008 and 2010. The two 2010 tracertests will be compared to determine if the results support the hypothesis that rock contraction along the flow pathway due to the 55 oC cooler water injection alters the flow through the ~140 oC reservoir.

Scale-dependency of dispersivity has been reported from field tracertests. We present a simple methodology for characterization of dispersivity as a linear function of scale around an injection well using divergent flow tracertest data conducted in fractured formations. Results show that the slope of this linear dispersivity function can be estimated using tracer concentration measurements in a monitoring well. The characterized dispersivity function has applications in modeling of field-scale transport processes in fractured formations. PMID:24660811

Testing of perfluorocarbon gas tracers (PFT) on a subsurface barrier with known flaws was conducted at the Waldo Test Site operated by Science and Engineering Associates, Inc (SEA). The tests involved the use of five unique PFTs with a different tracer injected along the interior of each wall of the barrier. A fifth tracer was injected exterior to the barrier to examine the validity of diffusion controlled transport of the PFTs. The PFTs were injected for three days at a nominal flow rate of 15 cm{sup 3}/min and concentrations in the range of a few hundred ppm. Approximately 65 liters of air laced with tracer was injected for each tracer. The tracers were able to accurately detect the presence of the engineered flaws. Two flaws were detected on the north and east walls, and one flaw was detected on the south and west walls. In addition, one non-engineered flaw at the seam between the north and east walls was also detected. The use of multiple tracers provided independent confirmation of the flaws and permitted a distinction between tracers arriving at a monitoring port after being released from a nearby flaw and non-engineered flaws. The PFTs detected the smallest flaw, 0.5 inches in diameter. Visual inspection of the data showed excellent agreement with the known flaw locations and the relative size of the flaws was accurately estimated. Simultaneous with the PFT tests, SEA conducted tests with another gas tracer sulfur hexafluoride (SF{sub 6}).

Tracertests are the most reliable field methods for obtaining information describing advection and dispersion in aquifers. The paper describes the design and performance of single-well tracertests utilizing multilevel observation wells at a field site near Mobile, Alabama. In a...

Researchers from Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) tested perfluorocarbon (PFT) gas tracers on a subsurface barrier with known flaws at the Waldo test facility [operated by Science and Engineering Associates, Inc (SEA)]. The tests involved the use of five unique PFT tracers with a different tracer injected along the interior of each wall of the barrier. A fifth tracer was injected exterior to the barrier to examine the validity of diffusion controlled transport of the PFTs. The PFTs were injected for three days at a nominal flow rate of 15 cm{sup 3}/min and a concentrations in the range of a few hundred ppm. Approximately 65 liters of air laced with tracer was injected for each tracer. The tracers were able to accurately detect the presence of the engineered flaws. Two flaws were detected on the north and east walls and lane flaw was detected on the south and west walls. In addition, one non-engineered flaw at the seam between the north and east walls was also detected. The use of multiple tracers provided independent confirmation of the flaws and permitted a distinction between tracers arriving at a monitoring port after being released from a nearby flaw and non-engineered flaws. The PFTs detected the smallest flaw, 0.5 inches in diameter. Visual inspection of the data showed excellent agreement with the known flaw locations and the relative size of the flaws was accurately estimated.

The goal of this study was to identify the limitations that apply when we couple conservative-tracer injection with reactive solute sampling to identify the transport and reaction processes active in a stream. Our methodology applies Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis to assess the ability of the tracer approach to identify the governing transport and reaction processes for a wide range of stream-solute transport and reaction scenarios likely to be encountered in high-gradient streams. Our analyses identified dimensionless factors that define the capabilities and limitations of the tracer approach. These factors provide a framework for comparing and contrasting alternative tracertest designs.

The gas-phase partitioning tracer method was used to estimate non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL), water, and air saturations in the vadose zone at a chlorinated-solvent contaminated field site in Tucson, AZ. The tracertest was conducted in a fractured clay system that is the confin...

Following the successful stimulation of Desert Peak target EGS well 27-15, a circulation test was initiated by injecting a conservative tracer (1,5-nds) in combination with a reactive tracer (7-amino-1,3-naphthalene disulfonate). The closest production well 74-21 was monitored over the subsequent several months.

Partitioning tracertests (PTTs) are commonly used to estimate the location and volume of nonaqueous-phase liquids (NAPLs) at contaminated groundwater sites. PTTs are completed before and after remediation efforts as one means to assess remediation effectiveness. PTT design is complex. Numerical models are invaluable tools for designing a PTT, particularly for designing flow rates and selecting tracers to ensure proper tracer breakthrough times, spatial design of injection-extraction wells and rates to maximize tracer capture, well-specific sampling density and frequency, and appropriate tracer-chemical masses. Generally, the design requires consideration of the following factors: type of contaminant; distribution of contaminant at the site, including location of hot spots; site hydraulic characteristics; measurement of the partitioning coefficients for the various tracers; the time allotted to conduct the PTT; evaluation of the magnitude and arrival time of the tracer breakthrough curves; duration of the tracer input pulse; maximum tracer concentrations; analytical detection limits for the tracers; estimation of the capture zone of the well field to tracer ensure mass balance and to limit residual tracer concentrations left in the subsurface; effect of chemical remediation agents on the PTT results, and disposal of the extracted tracer solution. These design principles are applied to a chemical-enhanced remediation effort for a chlorinated-solvent dense NAPL (DNAPL) site at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach, Virginia. For this project, the hydrology and pre-PTT contaminant distribution were characterized using traditional methods (slug tests, groundwater and soil concentrations from monitoring wells, and geoprobe analysis), as well as membrane interface probe analysis. Additional wells were installed after these studies. Partitioning tracers were selected based on the primary DNAPL contaminants at the site, expected NAPL saturations

Forced-gradient tracertests in fractured aquifers often report low mass recoveries. In fractured aquifers, fractures intersected by one borehole may not be intersected by another. As a result (1) injected tracer can follow pathways away from the withdrawal well causing low mass recovery and (2) recovered water can follow pathways not connected to the injection well causing significant tracer dilution. These two effects occur along with other forms of apparent mass loss. If the strength of the connection between wells and the amount of dilution can be predicted ahead of time, tracertests can be designed to optimize mass recovery and dilution. A technique is developed to use hydraulic tests in fractured aquifers to calculate the conductance (strength of connection) between well pairs and to predict mass recovery and amount of dilution during forced gradient tracertests. Flow is considered to take place through conduits, which connect the wells to each other and to distant sources or sinks. Mass recovery is related to the proportion of flow leaving the injection well and arriving at the withdrawal well, and dilution is related to the proportion of the flow from the withdrawal well that is derived from the injection well. The technique can be used to choose well pairs for tracertests, what injection and withdrawal rates to use, and which direction to establish the hydraulic gradient to maximize mass recovery and/or minimize dilution. The method is applied to several tracertests in fractured aquifers in the Clare Valley, South Australia. PMID:16857034

The transport of chemicals or heat in fractured reservoirs is strongly affected by the fracture-matrix interfacial area. In a vapor-dominated geothermal reservoir, this area can be estimated by inert gas tracertests, where gas diffusion between the fracture and matrix causes the tracer breakthrough curve (BTC) to have a long tail determined by the interfacial area. For water-saturated conditions, recent studies suggest that sorbing solute tracers can also generate strong tails in BTCs that may allow a determination of the fracture-matrix interfacial area. To theoretically explore such a useful phenomenon, this paper develops an analytical solution for BTCs in slug-tracertests in a water-saturated fractured reservoir. The solution shows that increased sorption should have the same effect on BTCs as an increase of the diffusion coefficient. The solution is useful for understanding transport mechanisms, verifying numerical codes, and for identifying appropriate chemicals as tracers for the characterization of fractured reservoirs.

A double forced gradient tracertest was performed in heterogeneous quaternary deposits of the Scheldt river in Belgium. The objectives of the test were to derive reliable hydraulic and solute transport parameters, to study the heterogeneity of the groundwater reservoir and to illustrate the practical utility of forced gradient tracertests. Salt water was used as a conservative tracer. The tracer was injected with two injection wells and both plumes were pumped towards one intermediately placed pumping well. Before the forced gradient tracertest a short lasting pumping test was performed. Drawdown and concentration measurements were made in different observation wells during the pumping and forced gradient tracertest. The movement of the salt water was followed by measuring the electrical conductivity of the sediments around observation wells using a focussed electromagnetic induction method. The drawdown and concentration observations were then interpreted together. By combining these two sets of data, hydraulic and solute transport parameters were derived simultaneously and more accurately than in the case only one type of data is used. For this, a new 3D solute transport model TRACER3D, specifically designed to simulate accurately flow and solute transport towards a well, was developed. The behaviour of the two tracer plumes was totally different due to varying hydraulic and dispersive properties in the aquifer. Horizontal and vertical conductivity, specific elastic storage, effective porosity and longitudinal dispersivity were derived and brought into relation with the site's heterogeneity, visualised by natural gamma logs in the different wells.

The primary objectives of the tracer infiltration test were to 1) determine whether field-scale hydraulic properties for the compacted roadbed materials and underlying Hanford fm. sediments comprising the zone of water table fluctuation beneath the site are consistent with estimates based laboratory-scale measurements on core samples and 2) characterize wetting front advancement and distribution of soil moisture achieved for the selected application rate. These primary objectives were met. The test successfully demonstrated that 1) the remaining 2 to 3 ft of compacted roadbed material below the infiltration gallery does not limit infiltration rates to levels that would be expected to eliminate near surface application as a viable amendment delivery approach and 2) the combined aqueous and geophysical monitoring approaches employed at this site, with some operational adjustments based on lessons learned, provides an effective means of assessing wetting front advancement and the distribution of soil moisture achieved for a given solution application. Reasonably good agreement between predicted and observed tracer and moisture front advancement rates was observed. During the first tracer infiltration test, which used a solution application rate of 0.7 cm/hr, tracer arrivals were observed at the water table (10 to 12 ft below the bottom of the infiltration gallery) after approximately 5 days, for an advancement rate of approximately 2 ft/day. This advancement rate is generally consistent with pre-test modeling results that predicted tracer arrival at the water table after approximately 5 days (see Figure 8, bottom left panel). This agreement indicates that hydraulic property values specified in the model for the compacted roadbed materials and underlying Hanford formation sediments, which were based on laboratory-scale measurements, are reasonable estimates of actual field-scale conditions. Additional work is needed to develop a working relationship between resistivity

Single-well injection/recovery tracertests are considered for use in characterizing and quantifying matrix diffusion in dual-porosity aquifers. Numerical modeling indicates that neither regional drift in homogeneous aquifers, nor heterogeneity in aquifers having no regional drift, nor hydrodynamic dispersion significantly affects these tests. However, when drift is coupled simultaneously with heterogeneity, they can have significant confounding effects on tracer return. This synergistic effect of drift and heterogeneity may help explain irreversible flow and inconsistent results sometimes encountered in previous single-well injection/recovery tracertests. Numerical results indicate that in a hypothetical single-well injection/recovery tracertest designed to demonstrate and measure dual-porosity characteristics in a fractured dolomite, the simultaneous effects of drift and heterogeneity sometimes yields responses similar to those anticipated in a homogeneous dual-porosity formation. In these cases, tracer recovery could provide a false indication of the occurrence of matrix diffusion. Shortening the shut-in period between injection and recovery periods may make the test less sensitive to drift. Using multiple tracers having different diffusion characteristics, multiple tests having different pumping schedules, and testing the formation at more than one location would decrease the ambiguity in the interpretation of test data.

The difficult task of locating and quantifying nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) present in the vadose and saturated zones has prompted the development of innovative, nondestructive characterization techniques. The use of the interwell partitioning tracer's (IWPT) test, in which ...

Innovative and nondestructive characterization techniques have been developed to locate and quantify nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) in the vadose and saturated zones in the subsurface environment. One such technique is the partitioning interwell tracertest (PITT). The PITT i...

This paper reports that work is being done to identify and characterize conservative organic tracers for use as groundwater tracers at the C-well complex. An evaluation of the chemical and biological stability of several compounds including fluorinated aliphatic and aromatic acids, fluorinated salicylic acids, and fluorinated cinnamic acids was carried out using tuff samples from the Yucca Mountain area and J13 or de-ionized water. Samples were monitored over a 60-day period for any decrease in concentration; the resulting data was evaluated for possible sorption or biological degradation of the candidate compound. The fluorinated benzoic acids show the greatest stability over the 60-day period. All analyses were carried out using an HPLC system, with either a fluorescence detector, a variable wavelength UV-VIS detector, or a quadrupole mass spectrometer.

On February 14 and 15, 2000, a demonstration of current perfluorocarbon tagging technology and the future potential of these methods was held at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The demonstration consisted of a brief technical discussion followed by a laboratory demonstration. The laboratory demonstrations included the detection of letters, parcels, briefcases and lockers containing perfluorocarbon-tagged papers. Discrimination between tagged and non-tagged items and between three perfluorocarbon tags was demonstrated along with the detection of perfluorocarbon in a background of non-fluorinated volatile organic solvent. All demonstrations involved real-time detection using a direct sampling ion trap mass spectrometer. The technical results obtained at ORNL during and in preparation for the demonstration are presented in Appendix 1 to assist Tracer Detection Technology Corp. in further evaluating their position on development and marketing of perfluorocarbon tracer technology.

This report discusses the transport of a group of reactive tracers over the course of a large-scale, natural gradient tracertest conducted at the USGS Cape Cod Toxic Substances Hydrology Research site, near Falmouth, Massachusetts. The overall objectives of the experiment were ...

Gas tracertests can be used to determine gas flow patterns within landfills, quantify volatile contaminant residence time, and measure water within refuse. While gas chromatography (GC) has been traditionally used to analyze gas tracers in refuse, photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) might allow real-time measurements with reduced personnel costs and greater mobility and ease of use. Laboratory and field experiments were conducted to evaluate the efficacy of PAS for conducting gas tracertests in landfills. Two tracer gases, difluoromethane (DFM) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF(6)), were measured with a commercial PAS instrument. Relative measurement errors were invariant with tracer concentration but influenced by background gas: errors were 1-3% in landfill gas but 4-5% in air. Two partitioning gas tracertests were conducted in an aerobic landfill, and limits of detection (LODs) were 3-4 times larger for DFM with PAS versus GC due to temporal changes in background signals. While higher LODs can be compensated by injecting larger tracer mass, changes in background signals increased the uncertainty in measured water saturations by up to 25% over comparable GC methods. PAS has distinct advantages over GC with respect to personnel costs and ease of use, although for field applications GC analyses of select samples are recommended to quantify instrument interferences. PMID:21996285

Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Photoacoustic infrared spectroscopy tested for measuring tracer gas in landfills. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Measurement errors for tracer gases were 1-3% in landfill gas. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Background signals from landfill gas result in elevated limits of detection. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Technique is much less expensive and easier to use than GC. - Abstract: Gas tracertests can be used to determine gas flow patterns within landfills, quantify volatile contaminant residence time, and measure water within refuse. While gas chromatography (GC) has been traditionally used to analyze gas tracers in refuse, photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) might allow real-time measurements with reduced personnel costs and greater mobility and ease of use. Laboratory and field experiments were conducted to evaluate the efficacy of PAS for conducting gas tracertests in landfills. Two tracer gases, difluoromethane (DFM) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF{sub 6}), were measured with a commercial PAS instrument. Relative measurement errors were invariant with tracer concentration but influenced by background gas: errors were 1-3% in landfill gas but 4-5% in air. Two partitioning gas tracertests were conducted in an aerobic landfill, and limits of detection (LODs) were 3-4 times larger for DFM with PAS versus GC due to temporal changes in background signals. While higher LODs can be compensated by injecting larger tracer mass, changes in background signals increased the uncertainty in measured water saturations by up to 25% over comparable GC methods. PAS has distinct advantages over GC with respect to personnel costs and ease of use, although for field applications GC analyses of select samples are recommended to quantify instrument interferences.

Converging radial-flow and two-well tracertests are simulated in two-dimensional aquifers to investigate the effects of heterogeneity and forced-gradient test configuration on longitudinal dispersivity (??L) estimates, and to compare ??L estimates from forced-gradient tests with ??L values that characterize solute spreading under natural-gradient flow. Results indicate that in mildly heterogeneous aquifers, for tests with relatively large tracer transport distances, ??L estimates from the two test types are generally similar, and are also similar to ??L values determined from natural-gradient tracer simulations. In highly heterogeneous aquifers, ??L estimates from two-well tests are generally larger than those from radial-flow tests, and the ??L estimates from both test types are typically smaller than the ??L values determined from natural-gradient simulations.

Converging radial-flow and two-well tracertests are simulated in two-dimensional aquifers to investigate the effects of heterogeneity and forced-gradient test configuration on longitudinal dispersivity (??L) estimates, and to compare ??L estimates from forced-gradient tests with ??L values that characterize solute spreading under natural-gradient flow. Results indicate that in both mildly and highly heterogeneous aquifers, ??L estimates from two-well tests are generally larger than those from radial-flow tests. In mildly heterogeneous aquifers, ??L estimates from two-well tests with relatively large tracer transport distances are similar to ??L values from natural-gradient simulations. In highly heterogeneous aquifers, ??L estimates from two-well tests at all tracer transport distances are typically smaller than ??L values from natural-gradient simulations.

Tracertesting under natural or forced gradient flow is an efficient method for characterizing subsurface properties, by monitoring and modeling the tracer plume migration in a heterogeneous aquifer. At the Hanford 300 area, non-reactive tracer experiments, in addition to constant-rate injection tests and electromagnetic borehole flow meter profiling, were conducted to characterize the heterogeneous hydraulic conductivity field at the site. The tracer was injected at a near-constant rate for 10 hours, and the tracer concentrations were monitored for 12 days in a network of observation wells. This work presents a Bayesian inverse modeling technique to infer the heterogeneity structure of the hydraulic conductivity in the saturated zone of the Hanford formation, using the breakthrough curves at various observation wells. Analytical or semi-analytical solutions for mass transport in divergent radial flow fields are adopted whenever possible to avoid expensive numerical forward simulations. Compared to the case conditioned on the constant-rate injection tests and electromagnetic borehole flow meter profiling, this study finds that the inclusion of tracertest data can improve the estimation of heterogeneity structure and reduce the prediction uncertainty of the solute transport at given locations. With the availability of observation wells at varying distances, we also investigate the worth of data in each observation well, which can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of current experimental setup and guide further data collection practices at the site.

The use of tracers is a well-established technique for monitoring dynamic behaviour of water and gas through a reservoir. In geothermal reservoirs special challenges are encountered due to high temperatures and pressures. In this work, tracer candidates for monitoring water at supercritical conditions (temperature > 374°C, pressure ca 218 bar), are tested in laboratory experiments. Testing of tracers at supercritical water conditions requires experimental set-ups which tolerate harsh conditions with respect to high temperature and pressure. In addition stringent HES (health, environment and safety) factors have to be taken into consideration when designing and performing the experiments. The setup constructed in this project consists of a pressure vessel, high pressure pump, instrumentation for pressure and temperature control and instrumentation required for accurate sampling of tracers. In order to achieve accurate results, a special focus has been paid to the development of the tracer sampling technique. Perfluorinated cyclic hydrocarbons (PFCs) have been selected as tracer candidates. This group of compounds is today commonly used as gas tracers in oil reservoirs. According to the literature they are stable at temperatures up to 400°C. To start with, five PFCs have been tested for thermal stability in static experiments at 375°C and 108 bar in the experimental setup described above. The tracer candidates will be further tested for several months at the relevant conditions. Preliminary results indicate that some of the PFC compounds show stability after three months. However, in order to arrive at conclusive results, the experiments have to be repeated over a longer period and paying special attention to more accurate sampling procedures.

Methane oxidation was measured in an unconfined sand and gravel aquifer (Cape Cod, Mass.) by using in situ natural-gradient tracertests at both a pristine, oxygenated site and an anoxic, sewage-contaminated site. The tracer sites were equipped with multilevel sampling devices to create target grids of sampling points; the injectate was prepared with groundwater from the tracer site to maintain the same geochemical conditions. Methane oxidation was calculated from breakthrough curves of methane relative to halide and inert gas (hexafluroethane) tracers and was confirmed by the appearance of 13C-enriched carbon dioxide in experiments in which 13C-enriched methane was used as the tracer. A Vmax for methane oxidation could be calculated when the methane concentration was sufficiently high to result in zero-order kinetics throughout the entire transport interval. Methane breakthrough curves could be simulated by modifying a one-dimensional adevection-dispersion transport model to include a Michaelis-Menten-based consumption term for methane oxidation. The Km values for methane oxidation that gave the best match for the breakthrough curve peaks were 6.0 and 9.0 microM for the uncontaminated and contaminated sites, respectively. Natural-gradient tracertests are a promising approach for assessing microbial processes and for testing in situ bioremediation potential in groundwater systems. PMID:1892389

Methane oxidation was measured in an unconfined sand and gravel aquifer (Cape Cod, Mass.) by using in situ natural-gradient tracertests at both a pristine, oxygenated site and an anoxic, sewage-contaminated site. The tracer sites were equipped with multilevel sampling devices to create target grids of sampling points; the injectate was prepared with groundwater from the tracer site to maintain the same geochemical conditions. Methane oxidation was calculated from breakthrough curves of methane relative to halide and inert gas (hexafluoroethane) tracers and was confirmed by the appearance of 13C-enriched carbon dioxide in experiments in which 13C-enriched methane was used as the tracer. A V(max) for methane oxidation could be calculated when the methane concentration was sufficiently high to result in zero-order kinetics throughout the entire transport interval. Methane breakthrough curves could be simulated by modifying a one-dimensional advection-dispersion transport model to include a Michaelis-Menten-based consumption term for methane oxidation. The K(m) values for methane oxidation that gave the best match for the breakthrough curve peaks were 6.0 and 9.0 ??M for the uncontaminated and contaminated sites, respectively. Natural-gradient tracertests are a promising approach for assessing microbial processes and for testing in situ bioremediation potential in groundwater systems.

Contaminant characterization is important for successful remediation of non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) in the unsaturated zone. A partitioning interwell tracertest (PITT) can provide a good estimate of average subsurface NAPL saturations. Screening experiments were completed in the laboratory to evaluate several gas tracers for a PITT study to be completed in the vadose zone at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, NM. Four perfluorocarbon tracers were found to be suitable for this PITT. Further laboratory column studies were completed using contaminated field soil to measure the partition coefficients between the tracers and the NAPL. The results from the column studies showed that the air/NAPL tracer partition coefficients ranged from 8.8±0.6 to 71±3. This range of partition coefficients is suitable for detection of NAPL saturations in the field of 0.002 to 0.14.

Interfacial partitioning tracertests (IPTT) are one method available for measuring air-water interfacial area (Aa-w). Two variations of the aqueous IPTT method are compared. One involves the standard approach comprising tracer injection under steady unsaturated-flow conditions with a uniform water-saturation distribution within the column. The other involves tracer injection under steady saturated-flowconditions in the presence of trapped residual air. Sodium dodecylbezenesulfonate (SDBS) and pentafluorobenzoic acid (PFBA) were used as the partitioning andnonreactive tracers, respectively. A sandy soil with a median grain diameter of 0.234 mm was used as the porous medium. Initial water saturation, Sw,was approximately 80%. Water saturation was monitored gravimetrically during the experiments. The results of the experiments will be assessed and compared to those of prior studies.

Kinematic fracture porosity is an important hydrologic transport parameter for predicting the potential of rapid contaminant migration through fractured rock. The transport velocity of a solute moving within a fracture network is inversely related to the fracture porosity. Since fracture porosity is often one or two orders of magnitude smaller than matrix porosity, and fracture permeability is often orders of magnitude greater than matrix permeability, solutes may travel significantly faster in the fracture network than in the surrounding matrix. This dissertation introduces a new methodology for conducting gas tracertests using a field portable mass spectrometer along with analytical tools for estimating fracture porosity using the measured tracer concentration breakthrough curves. Field experiments were conducted at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, consisting of air-permeability transient testing and gas-tracer-transport tests. The experiments were conducted from boreholes drilled within an underground tunnel as part of an investigation of rock mass hydrological behavior. Air-permeability pressure transients, recorded during constant mass flux injections, have been analyzed using a numerical inversion procedure to identify fracture permeability and porosity. Dipole gas tracertests have also been conducted from the same boreholes used for air-permeability testing. Mass breakthrough data has been analyzed using a random walk particle-tracking model, with a dispersivity that is a function of the advective velocity. The estimated fracture porosity using the tracertest and air-injection test data ranges from .001 to .015. These values are an order of magnitude greater than the values estimated by others using hydraulically estimated fracture apertures. The estimates of porosity made using air-permeability test data are shown to be highly sensitive to formation heterogeneity. Uncertainty analyses performed on the gas tracertest results show high confidence in the parameter

Using heat as an active tracer for aquifer characterization is a topic of increasing interest. In this study, we investigate the potential of using heat tracertests for characterization of a shallow alluvial aquifer. A thermal tracertest was conducted in the alluvial aquifer of the Meuse River, Belgium. The tracing experiment consisted in simultaneously injecting heated water and a dye tracer in an injection well and monitoring the evolution of groundwater temperature and tracer concentration in the pumping well and in measurement intervals. To get insights in the 3D characteristics of the heat transport mechanisms, temperature data from a large number of observation wells closely spaced along three transects were used. Temperature breakthrough curves in observation wells are contrasted with what would be expected in an ideal layered aquifer. They reveal strongly unequal lateral and vertical components of the transport mechanisms. The observed complex behavior of the heat plume is explained by the groundwater flow gradient on the site and heterogeneities in the hydraulic conductivity field. Moreover, due to high injection temperatures during the field experiment a temperature-induced fluid density effect on heat transport occurred. By using a flow and heat transport numerical model with variable density coupled with a pilot point approach for inversion of the hydraulic conductivity field, the main preferential flow paths were delineated. The successful application of a field heat tracertest at this site suggests that heat tracertests is a promising approach to image hydraulic conductivity field. This methodology could be applied in aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) projects for assessing future efficiency that is strongly linked to the hydraulic conductivity variability in the considered aquifer.

This report provides (1) an overview of all tracertesting conducted in the Culebra Dolomite Member of the Rustler Formation at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WPP) site, (2) a detailed description of the important information about the 1995-96 tracertests and the current interpretations of the data, and (3) a summary of the knowledge gained to date through tracertesting in the Culebra. Tracertests have been used to identify transport processes occurring within the Culebra and quantify relevant parameters for use in performance assessment of the WIPP. The data, especially those from the tests performed in 1995-96, provide valuable insight into transport processes within the Culebra. Interpretations of the tracertests in combination with geologic information, hydraulic-test information, and laboratory studies have resulted in a greatly improved conceptual model of transport processes within the Culebra. At locations where the transmissivity of the Culebra is low (< 4 x 10{sup -6} m{sup 2}/s), we conceptualize the Culebra as a single-porosity medium in which advection occurs largely through the primary porosity of the dolomite matrix. At locations where the transmissivity of the Culebra is high (> 4 x 10{sup -6} m{sup 2}/s), we conceptualize the Culebra as a heterogeneous, layered, fractured medium in which advection occurs largely through fractures and solutes diffuse between fractures and matrix at multiple rates. The variations in diffusion rate can be attributed to both variations in fracture spacing (or the spacing of advective pathways) and matrix heterogeneity. Flow and transport appear to be concentrated in the lower Culebra. At all locations, diffusion is the dominant transport process in the portions of the matrix that tracer does not access by flow.

The purpose of this bounding analysis was to determine bounding estimates of salt concentrations in the aquifer below the salt-tracer plume test at the 105A mockup-tank site near the inactive Semi-Works Plant in the 200 East Area. The objective was to calculate the bounding salt concentrations and compare them to the appropriate maximum contamination level (MCL) allowed by state law, which for sodium chloride is 415 mg/l as a secondary standard. The tracertest is part of the Electrical-Resistance Tomography (ERT) demonstration, which will provide an effective method of detecting tank leaks if it is shown to be successful. The basic idea of ERT method is that the electrical resistance in the soils will change enough to be detected when water with salts infiltrate the soils, even if a high-conductance metal tank is just above the leak. The 105A mockup tank did not have an impermeable bottom and was open at the top until the time of the test. It was assumed, at the time of the tracertest or shortly afterwards, that an impermeable bottom (concrete) would be placed at the bottom of the tank, but still remain open at the top. Hence, in this analysis, no artificial recharge is produced due to water running off a tank top, since no top is assumed. The conceptual model is discussed in Section 2.0 with the mathematical and numerical models briefly discussed in Section 3.0. The main results are given in Section 4.0 with the conclusions drawn in Section 5.0. These calculations were made before the tracertest. A similar set of calculations will be performed after the tracertest assuming more details concerning leak location and soil properties are available. The tracertest could be used to validate or confirm the modeling methodology/capability of plumes in the vadose zone at the Hanford site.

Residual oil saturation is one of the most important parameters to be considered when analyzing a prospective field for enhanced oil recovery. Traditionally, residual oil saturation has been estimated from cores or well logs. These methods have a small radius of investigation, evaluating saturations in a region close to the wellbore. This region is often affected by injection or production operations. Single well tracertests have proven to be a better alternative to estimate residual oil saturation since they cover a substantially larger volume of the reservoir, and thus measure a more representative residual oil saturation of the target formation. The method consists of the injection of a reactive tracer that is soluble in oil and water. This tracer slowly hydrolyzes forming a secondary tracer as a product of an irreversible chemical reaction. After injection, the well is shut in to allow the formation of a detectable amount of secondary tracer, which is soluble only in water. When the well is open to production, each tracer arrives to the well at different times. From the separation between the concentration peaks, residual oil saturation is estimated. However, the determination of the residual oil saturation through the analysis of single well tracertest production data, in the past, has required: 1) the use of finite difference simulators, 2) five fitting parameters and 3) considerable man-computer interaction time. In addition finite difference simulators give results that are affected by numerical dispersion. This, and the fitting parameters, add uncertainty to the uniqueness of the solution. In this work, a new approach is presented. The test is analyzed. 28 references, 70 figures, 7 tables.

Single-well push-pull tracertests have been used to characterize the extent, fate, and transport of subsurface contamination. Analytical solutions provide one alternative for interpreting test results. In this work, an exact analytical solution to two-dimensional equations descr...

Single-well tracertests in conjunction with multi-level observation wells were performed by Auburn University during the summer of 1984. The purpose of the tests was to determine the vertical variation of horizontal hydraulic conductivity in a confined aquifer. The results, whic...

The transport of many solutes in groundwater is dependent upon the relative rates of physical flow and microbial metabolism. Quantifying rates of microbial processes under subsurface conditions is difficult and is most commonly approximated using laboratory studies with aquifer materials. In this study, we measured in situ rates of denitrification in a nitrate- contaminated aquifer using small-scale, natural-gradient tracertests and compared the results with rates obtained from laboratory incubations with aquifer core material. Activity was measured using the acetylene block technique. For the tracertests, co-injection of acetylene and bromide into the aquifer produced a 30 ??M increase in nitrous oxide after 10 m of transport (23-30 days). An advection-dispersion transport model was modified to include an acetylene-dependent nitrous oxide production term and used to simulate the tracer breakthrough curves. The model required a 4-day lag period and a relatively low sensitivity to acetylene to match the narrow nitrous oxide breakthrough curves. Estimates of in situ denitrification rates were 0.60 and 1.51 nmol of N2O produced cm-3 aquifer day-1 for two successive tests. Aquifer core material collected from the tracertest site and incubated as mixed slurries in flasks and as intact cores yielded rates that were 1.2-26 times higher than the tracertest rate estimates. Results with the coring-dependent techniques were variable and subject to the small- scale heterogeneity within the aquifer, while the tracertests integrated the heterogeneity along a flow path, giving a rate estimate that is more applicable to transport at the scale of the aquifer.

A key component in the operation of almost all bioreactor landfills is the addition of water to maintain optimal moisture conditions. To determine how much water is needed and where to add it, in situ methods are required to measure water within solid waste. Existing technologies often result in measurements of unknown accuracy, because of the variability of solid waste materials and time-dependent changes in packing density, both of which influence most measurement methods. To overcome these problems, a new technology recently developed by hydrologists for measuring water in the vadose zone--the partitioning gas tracertest--was tested. In this technology, the transport behavior of two gas tracers within solid waste is used to measure the fraction of the void space filled with water. One tracer is conservative and does not react with solids or liquids, while a second tracer partitions into the water and is separated from the conservative tracer during transport. This technology was tested in four different solid waste packings and was capable of determining the volumetric water content to within 48% of actual values, with most measurement errors less than 15%. This technology and the factors that affect its applicability to landfills are discussed in this paper. PMID:14649759

A karstic formation consists in a three-dimensional hydrological system which involves horizontal and vertical, diphasic or saturated water transfers characterised by a large range of velocity. These subsurface flow processes correspond to various water pathways through fractured, fissured, and underground streams or conduits leading to a nonlinear global behaviour of the system. An efficient way of investigating of a karstic system behaviour consists in the injection of artificial tracertests at loss points and in careful analysis of the recovery tracer fluxes at one or several outlets of the systems. These injections are also an efficient way of providing hypotheses on characteristic time of contaminant transfer in these type of aquifers. Here, we propose a Laplace-transform transfer function of the Residence Time Distribution function that allows to discriminate between a quick-flow advection-dominated component and a slow-flow advection-dispersion/dominated component in the artificial tracer transfer in the system. We apply this transfer function on five high resolution sampling rate artificial tracertests operated on the Baget system in the Pyrenees (France) in order to illustrate the advantages and limitations of this approach. We provide then an interpretation of the relationship between tracertest recovery shape and karstic system organisation between inlet and outlet site.

Highlights: • Multiple tracers were applied to saturated MSW to test dual-porosity properties. • Lithium demonstrated to be non-conservative as a tracer. • 260 mm diameter column too small to test transport properties of MSW. • The classical advection-dispersion mode was rejected due to high dispersivity. • Characteristic diffusion times did not vary with the tracer. - Abstract: Two column tests were performed in conditions emulating vertical flow beneath the leachate table in a biologically active landfill to determine dominant transport mechanisms occurring in landfills. An improved understanding of contaminant transport process in wastes is required for developing better predictions about potential length of the long term aftercare of landfills, currently measured in timescales of centuries. Three tracers (lithium, bromide and deuterium) were used. Lithium did not behave conservatively. Given that lithium has been used extensively for tracing in landfill wastes, the tracer itself and the findings of previous tests which assume that it has behaved conservatively may need revisiting. The smaller column test could not be fitted with continuum models, probably because the volume of waste was below a representative elemental volume. Modelling compared advection-dispersion (AD), dual porosity (DP) and hybrid AD–DP models. Of these models, the DP model was found to be the most suitable. Although there is good evidence to suggest that diffusion is an important transport mechanism, the breakthrough curves of the different tracers did not differ from each other as would be predicted based on the free-water diffusion coefficients. This suggested that solute diffusion in wastes requires further study.

The tracer dilution technique for the measurement of steam and water mass flowrates and total enthalpy of two-phase geothermal fluids has been in routine use in the U.S.A. for almost three years. The tracer technique was first tested and adopted on a field-wide basis at the Coso geothermal field in California. Validation of the method was performed at the Roosevelt Hot Springs geothermal project in Utah and the Salton Sea and Heber geothermal projects in California by direct comparison to orifice-plate flowmeter measurements of the separated phases. Production well mass flowrates and total enthalpy are now regularly measured by this technique in the Coso, Salton Sea and Heber geothermal fields. Implementation of the tracer method is currently underway for the Tiwi and Bulalo geothermal fields in the Philippines. This paper presents the conceptual design of the measurement process, the results of field validations, and operating experience during field-wide testing in Coso.

Recently tracer gas techniques have been applied to the problem of measuring the leakage across an installed bubble-tight damper. A significant advantage of using a tracer gas technique is that quantitative leakage data are obtained under actual operating differential pressure conditions. Another advantage is that leakage data can be obtained using relatively simple test setups that utilize inexpensive materials without the need to tear ducts apart, fabricate expensive blank-off plates, and install test connections. Also, a tracer gas technique can be used to provide an accurate field evaluation of the performance of installed bubble-tight dampers on a periodic basis. Actual leakage flowrates were obtained at Zion Generating Station on four installed bubble-tight dampers using a tracer gas technique. Measured leakage rates ranged from 0.01 CFM to 21 CFM. After adjustment and subsequent retesting, the 21 CFM damper leakage was reduced to a leakage of 3.8 CFM. In light of the current regulatory climate and the interest in Control Room Habitability issues, imprecise estimates of critical air boundary leakage rates--such as through bubble-tight dampers--are not acceptable. These imprecise estimates can skew radioactive dose assessments as well as chemical contaminant exposure calculations. Using a tracer gas technique, the actual leakage rate can be determined. This knowledge eliminates a significant source of uncertainty in both radioactive dose and/or chemical exposure assessments.

Using heat as an active tracer for aquifer characterization is a topic of increasing interest. In this study, we investigate the potential of using heat tracertests for characterization of a shallow alluvial aquifer. A thermal tracertest was conducted in the alluvial aquifer of the Meuse River, Belgium. The tracing experiment consisted in simultaneously injecting heated water and a dye tracer in a piezometer and monitoring the evolution of groundwater temperature and tracer concentration in the recovery well and in monitoring wells. To get insights in the 3D characteristics of the heat transport mechanisms, temperature data from a large number of observation wells distributed throughout the field site (space-filling arrangement) were used. Temperature breakthrough curves in observation wells are contrasted with what would be expected in an ideal layered aquifer. They reveal strongly unequal lateral and vertical components of the transport mechanisms. The observed complex behavior of the heat plume was explained by the groundwater flow gradient on the site and heterogeneity of hydraulic conductivity field. Moreover, due to high injection temperatures during the field experiment a temperature-induced fluid density effect on heat transport occurred. By using a flow and heat transport numerical model with variable density coupled with the pilot point inverse approach, main preferential flow paths were delineated.

Data useful for evaluating the effectiveness of or designing an enhanced recovery process said process involving mobilizing and moving hydrocarbons through a hydrocarbon bearing subterranean formation from an injection well to a production well by injecting a mobilizing fluid into the injection well, comprising (a) determining hydrocarbon saturation in a volume in the formation near a well bore penetrating formation, (b) injecting sufficient mobilizing fluid to mobilize and move hydrocarbons from a volume in the formation near the well bore, and (c) determining the hydrocarbon saturation in a volume including at least a part of the volume of (b) by an improved single well surfactant method comprising injecting 2 or more slugs of water containing the primary tracer separated by water slugs containing no primary tracer. Alternatively, the plurality of ester tracers can be injected in a single slug said tracers penetrating varying distances into the formation wherein the esters have different partition coefficients and essentially equal reaction times. The single well tracer method employed is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,623,842. This method designated the single well surfactant test (SWST) is useful for evaluating the effect of surfactant floods, polymer floods, carbon dioxide floods, micellar floods, caustic floods and the like in subterranean formations in much less time and at much reduced cost compared to conventional multiwell pilot tests.

The stability of subsurface Light Nonaqueous Phase Liquids (LNAPLs) is a key factor driving expectations for remedial measures at LNAPL sites. The conventional approach to resolving LNAPL stability has been to apply Darcy's Equation. This paper explores an alternative approach wherein single-well tracer dilution tests with intermittent mixing are used to resolve LNAPL stability. As a first step, an implicit solution for single-well intermittent mixing tracer dilution tests is derived. This includes key assumptions and limits on the allowable time between intermittent mixing events. Second, single-well tracer dilution tests with intermittent mixing are conducted under conditions of known LNAPL flux. This includes a laboratory sand tank study and two field tests at active LNAPL recovery wells. Results from the sand tank studies indicate that LNAPL fluxes in wells can be transformed into formation fluxes using corrections for (1) LNAPL thicknesses in the well and formation and (2) convergence of flow to the well. Using the apparent convergence factor from the sand tank experiment, the average error between the known and measured LNAPL fluxes is 4%. Results from the field studies show nearly identical known and measured LNAPL fluxes at one well. At the second well the measured fluxes appear to exceed the known value by a factor of two. Agreement between the known and measured LNAPL fluxes, within a factor of two, indicates that single-well tracer dilution tests with intermittent mixing can be a viable means of resolving LNAPL stability. PMID:22489832

Independent estimates of absolute hydraulic conductivity were obtained by a standard aquifer pumping test and a forced-gradient tracertest in a highly heterogeneous aquifer. An aquifer hydraulic test was conducted to evaluate the average hydraulic conductivity (K), and to establish steady-state flow for the tracertest. An average K of 48 m/day was interpreted from the draw-down data in a fully screened well. Type-curve matching and simulation with MODFLOW of the hydraulic response in partially screened wells indicates K of 10 to 15 m/day for the upper section and 71 to 73 m/day for the deeper section. Iodide and fluorescent dye tracers were injected at low rates in wells located approximately 8 m upgradient of the production well. Tracer breakthrough was monitored in the production well and at ten depth intervals within the fully screened monitoring well. Interpretation of tracer response in the production well reveals tracer transport is limited to a 3.9 m thick section of the 20 m thick aquifer, with a hydraulic conductivity of 248 m/day. However, the depth distribution of these permeable strata cannot be determined from the production well tracer response. When sampled at 1.5 m depth intervals in the monitoring well, breakthrough was observed in only three intervals along the entire 18.2 m screened well. K estimates from tracer travel time within discrete high-permeability strata range from 31 to 317 m/day. Inclusion of permeameter K estimates for the lower permeability aquifer sands result in a range in relative K of 0.01 to 1.0. This field site has the highest absolute K estimate for a discrete stratum and the widest range in relative hydraulic conductivity among research field sites with K estimates for discrete strata. Within such a highly stratified aquifer, the use of an average K from an aquifer pumping test to predict solute transport results in great underestimation of transport distances for a given time period.

The variance in particle position, a measure of dispersion, is reviewed in the context of certain models of flow in random porous media. Asymptotic results for a highly stratified medium and an isotropic medium are particularly highlighted. Results of the natural gradient tracertest at the Borden site are reviewed in light of these models. This review suggests that the moments obtained for the conservative tracers could as well be explained by a model that more explicitly represents the three-dimensional nature of the flow field. -Authors

Tracertests conducted at the Macrodispersion Experiment (MADE) site in Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi have contributed significantly to the understanding of contaminant transport processes in highly-heterogeneous media. Previous experiments have revealed a network of interconnected preferential flow paths within the underlying aquifer. Only solute tracers including bromide and tritium have been used in previous experiments. In this new study, a forced-gradient experiment based on heated water injection was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of heat as a substitute for a solute tracer to study aquifer heterogeneity at the MADE site. We injected a pulse of heated water, recorded the breakthrough curves, and used numerical modeling to characterize the heat transport behavior and its relationship to subsurface heterogeneity. The results were compared with those from a previous experiment based on the bromide tracer. This research suggests heat can be a cheaper and environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional solute tracers, and improves our understanding of contaminant transport processes in highly-heterogeneous systems.

The paper illustrates several interesting effects of aquifer stratification on the results of two-well tracertests by means of a simplified computer model. In the model, it is assumed that the aquifer is horizontal, confined, of constant thickness and porosity, and perfectly str...

A tracertest was conducted to characterize the flow of ground water surrounding a permeable reactive barrier constructed with plant mulch (a biowall) at the OU-1 site on Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma. This biowall is intended to intercept and treat ground water contaminated by ...

Analysis of partitioning tracertests conducted in dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) source zones relies on conceptual models that describe mass exchange between the DNAPL and aqueous phases. Such analysis, however, is complicated by the complex distribution of entrapped DNAPL mass and formation heterogeneity. Due to parameter uncertainty in heterogeneous regions and the desire to reduce model complexity, the effect of mass transfer limitations is often neglected, and an equilibrium-based model is typically used to interpret test results. This work explores the consequences of that simplifying assumption on test data interpretation and develops an alternative upscaled modeling approach to quantify effective mass transfer rates. To this end, a series of partitioning tracertests is numerically simulated in heterogeneous two-dimensional PCE-DNAPL source zones, representative of a range of hydraulic conductivity and DNAPL mass distribution characteristics. The effective mass transfer coefficient corresponding to each test is determined by fitting an upscaled model to the simulated data, and regression analysis is performed to explore the correlation between various source zone metrics and the effective mass transfer coefficient. Results suggest that vertical DNAPL spreading, Reynolds number, pool fraction, and the effective organic phase saturation are the most significant parameters controlling tracer partitioning rates. Finally, a correlation for prediction of the effective (upscaled) mass transfer coefficient is proposed and verified using existing experimental data. The developed upscaled model incorporates the influence of physical heterogeneity on the rate of tracer partitioning and, thus, can be used for the estimation of source zone mass distribution characteristics from tracertest results.

Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source particularly attractive due to associated low greenhouse gas emission rates. Crystalline rocks are in general considered of poor interest for geothermal applications at shallow depths (< 100m), because of the low permeability of the medium. In some cases, fractures may enhance permeability, but thermal energy storage at these shallow depths is still remaining very challenging because of the low storativity of the medium. Within this framework, the purpose of this study is to test the possibility of efficient thermal energy storage in shallow fractured rocks with a single well semi open loop heat exchanger (standing column well). For doing so, several heat tracertests have been achieved along a borehole between two connected fractures. The heat tracertests have been achieved at the experimental site of Ploemeur (H+ observatory network). The tracertests consist in monitoring the temperature in the upper fracture while injecting hot water in the deeper one thanks to a field boiler. For such an experimental setup, the main difficulty to interpret the data comes from the requirement for separating the temperature advective signal of the tracertest (temperature recovery) from the heat increase due to injection of hot water through the borehole which induces heat losses all along the injection tube in the water column. For doing so, in addition to a double straddle packer used for isolating the injection chamber, the particularity of the experimental set up is the use of fiber optic distributed temperature sensing (FO-DTS); an innovative technology which allows spatial and temporal monitoring of the temperature all along the well. Thanks to this tool, we were able to estimate heat increases coming from diffusion along the injection tube which is found much lower than localized temperature increases resulting from tracertest recovery. With local temperatures probes, separating both effects would not have been feasible. We

A series of tracertests have been conducted in the Migration (MI) Shear Zone at the Grimsel Test Site (GTS) for the Colloid Formation and Migration Project (CFM). As a part of the series, a dipole test (TracerTest Run 13-05) using radionuclides, colloids and conservative tracers was performed to determine the breakthrough between CRR99.002-i2 and BOMI87.010-i2. To date, the breakthrough data of only the conservative dye tracer (Amino-G acid) are available. In the preceding project, the Colloid and Radionuclide Retardation Project (CRR), a transmissivity field for the MI shear zone was obtained by the geostatistical inverse modeling approach. In this study, the breakthrough of the tracer was computed by a gray lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). The transmissivity field with finite elements grid was transformed to the effective fracture aperture or flow porosity according to the cubic law, and the grid was uniformalized by the interpolation. The uniform mesh of the effective aperture was utilized as the model domain of the gray LBM. In the gray LBM, the heterogeneity of the aperture was dealt with a partial-bounceback scheme. The profiles of hydraulic heads monitored at the boreholes nearby were used as the reference values in the calculation of the pressure distribution in the model domain. The modeling results could reveal a dominant pathway of tracers in the dipole test. The developed model can be utilized in the calculation of the reactive transports of radionuclides and colloids by coupling with a geochemical model, such as Phreeqc, the Geochemist's Workbench, etc.

A simulation of two-well injection-withdrawal tracertests in stratified granular aquifers is presented for two widely separated sites substantially different in terms of vertical distributions of hydraulic conductivity, well spacings, flow rates, test durations and tracer travel...

This presentation covers the interpretations of colloid-homologue tracertest 10-03 conducted at the Grimsel Test Site, Switzerland, in 2010. It also provides a comparison of the interpreted test results with those of tracertest 10-01, which was conducted in the same fracture flow system and using the same tracers than test 10-03, but at a higher extraction flow rate. A method of correcting for apparent uranine degradation in test 10-03 is presented. Conclusions are: (1) Uranine degradation occurred in test 10-03, but not in 10-01; (2) Uranine correction based on apparent degradation rate in injection loop in test 11-02 seems reasonable when applied to data from test 10-03; (3) Colloid breakthrough curves quite similar in the two tests with similar recoveries relative to uranine (after correction); and (4) Much slower apparent desorption of homologues in test 10-03 than in 10-01 (any effect of residual homologues from test 10-01 in test 10-03?).

Tracer injection tests are regularly-used tools to identify and characterise flow and transport mechanisms in aquifers. Examples of practical applications are manifold and include, among others, managed aquifer recharge schemes, aquifer thermal energy storage systems and, increasingly important, the disposal of produced water from oil and shale gas wells. The hydrogeological and geochemical data collected during the injection tests are often employed to assess the potential impacts of injection on receptors such as drinking water wells and regularly serve as a basis for the development of conceptual and numerical models that underpin the prediction of potential impacts. As all field tracer injection tests impose substantial logistical and financial efforts, it is crucial to develop a solid a-priori understanding of the value of the various monitoring data to select monitoring strategies which provide the greatest return on investment. In this study, we demonstrate the ability of linear predictive uncertainty analysis (i.e. “data worth analysis”) to quantify the usefulness of different tracer types (bromide, temperature, methane and chloride as examples) and head measurements in the context of a field-scale aquifer injection trial of coal seam gas (CSG) co-produced water. Data worth was evaluated in terms of tracer type, in terms of tracertest design (e.g., injection rate, duration of test and the applied measurement frequency) and monitoring disposition to increase the reliability of injection impact assessments. This was followed by an uncertainty targeted Pareto analysis, which allowed the interdependencies of cost and predictive reliability for alternative monitoring campaigns to be compared directly. For the evaluated injection test, the data worth analysis assessed bromide as superior to head data and all other tracers during early sampling times. However, with time, chloride became a more suitable tracer to constrain simulations of physical transport

We simulate three types of forced-gradient tracertests (converging radial flow, unequal strength two well, and equal strength two well) and natural-gradient tracertests in multiple realizations of heterogeneous two-dimensional aquifers with a hydraulic conductivity distribution characterized by a spherical variogram. We determine longitudinal dispersivities (??L) by analysis of forced-gradient test breakthrough curves at the pumped well and by spatial moment analysis of tracer concentrations during the natural-gradient tests. Results show that among the forced-gradient tests, a converging radial-flow test tends to yield the smallest ??L, an equal strength two-well test tends to yield the largest ??L, and an unequal strength two-well test tends to yield an intermediate value. This finding is qualitatively explained by considering the aquifer area sampled by a particular test. A converging radial-flow test samples a small area, and thus the tracer undergoes a low degree of spreading and mixing. An equal strength two-well test samples a much larger area, so the tracer is spread and mixed to a greater degree. Results also suggest that if the distance between the tracer source well and the pumped well is short relative to the lengths over which velocity is correlated, then the ??L estimate can be highly dependent on local heterogeneities in the vicinity of the wells. Finally, results indicate that ??L estimated from forced-gradient tracertests can significantly underestimate the ??L needed to characterize solute dispersion under natural-gradient flow. Only a two-well tracertest with a large well separation in an aquifer with a low degree of heterogeneity can yield a value of ??L that characterizes natural-gradient tracer spreading. This suggests that a two-well test with a large well separation is the preferred forced-gradient test for characterizing solute dispersion under natural-gradient flow.

Tracertests are one of the standard methods for investigating groundwater processes. Among the range of different test variants, using heat as a tracer has gained substantial interest during the last decade. Temperature measurements have become essential ingredients for example for characterization of river-aquifer interactions and in the field of geothermics. Much less attention than on natural temperature signals has been devoted to induced synthetic temperature signals, even though it is well known that temperature is an easy to measure, invisible but sensitive system property. Design, application and inversion of such active thermal tracertests represent one focus of our work. We build up on the experience from related field experiments, where heated water was injected and the propagation of the generated thermal anomaly was monitored. In this presentation, we show the results from first field-testing in an alluvial aquifer at the Widen site in the Thur valley in Switzerland. The thermal evolution of groundwater was monitored in summer 2014 during and after several days of heated water injection. By this test, we want to derive insights into the prevailing hydraulic heterogeneity of the shallow aquifer at the site. The results are used for calibration of a two dimensional hydrogeological numerical model. With the calibrated hydraulic conductivity field, the experiment is simulated and the transient evolution of the heat plume is visualized. Hydraulic heterogeneity is identified as one main factor for lateral spreading of the heat plume. The most important result of the experiment is that the significance of the ambient flow field is very high and even with high pumping rates to establish forced gradient conditions its effect cannot be overridden. During the test, precious technical experience was gained, which will be beneficial for subsequent heat tracer applications. For example, the challenge of maintaining a constant injection rate and temperature could

We model water flow and estimate permeability distribution to improve regional groundwater management for a tectonically limited hard-rock aquifer. Management of groundwater resources for drinking water supply requires understanding and quantifying of the regional groundwater flow and groundwater budget which depends largely on the petrophysical transport properties (e. g., porosity and permeability) of the underground. We study a structurally complex and thus highly heterogeneous area on a regional scale: the Hastenrather Graben 15 km northeast of Aachen, Germany. Here, groundwater is produced from a carbonate aquifer for drinking water supply. However, direct data on the geometry and petrophysical properties of the underground are sparse and most data are only one-dimensional. For overcoming this limitation and coping with the heterogeneity of the underground we use the Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) for stochastic parameter estimation and statistical ensemble analysis. Assimilating time-dependent tracertest data will help estimating permeability. The fact that the aquifer is used for drinking water supply prevents using of any artificial tracer such as radioactive or fluorescent tracer. Instead, drinking water with a lower salinity compared to the groundwater (e.g., dam water) will be used. The detection limit will be relatively low due to the low salinity contrast between reservoir water and tracer. It might even be in the range of measuring error. For studying the sensitivity of EnKF at the limit of detection we set up a synthetic scenario based on the conditions in our study area. Performing EnKF assimilation runs based on perturbed observations characterized by different measurement error levels yields information on the acceptable signal-to-noise-ratio required by EnKF for successful estimates of the given synthetic permeability distribution. This, in turn, provides information on the limits of the real-world's tracertest at low salinity contrast.

Flow and solute transport through porous medium with strongly varying hydraulic conductivity are studied by numerical simulations. The heterogeneity of the porous medium is defined by {sigma} and {lambda}{prime}, which are, respectively, the standard deviation of natural log of permeability values and its correlation range {lambda} divided by transport distance L. The development of flow channeling as a function of these two parameters is demonstrated. The results show that for large heterogeneities, the flow is highly channelized and solute is transported through a few fast paths, and the corresponding breakthrough curves show a high peak at very early times, much shorter than the mean residence time. This effect was studied for a converging radial flow, to simulate tracertests in a fracture zone or contact-thickness aquifer. It is shown that {sigma}{sup 2}{lambda}{prime} is an appropriate parameter to characterize the tracer dispersion and breakthrough curves. These results are used to study tracer breakthrough data from field experiments performed with nonsorbing tracers. A new procedure is proposed to analyze the results. From the moments of the residence-time distribution represented by the breakthrough curves, the heterogeneity of the porous medium, as characterized by {sigma}{sup 2}{lambda}{prime} and the mean residence time t{sub o}, may be determined.

In this report, we summarize a portion of the results of a large-scale tracertest conducted at the U. S. Geological Survey research site on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The site is located on a large sand and gravel glacial outwash plain in an unconfined aquifer. In April 1993, ab...

Ground-water tracertest were conducted at two sites in the radioactive-waste disposal area of Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 1977 to 1982. The purpose of the tests was to determine if the regolith beds had weathered sufficiently to permit the substantial flow of water across them. About 50 curies of tritium dissolved in water were used as the tracer in one site, and about 100 curies at the other. Results demonstrated that ground water is able to flow through joints in the weathered bedding and that the direction of the water-table gradient is the primary factor governint flow direction. Nevertheless, the substantial lateral spread of the plume as it developed showed that bedding-plane openings can still exert a significant secondary influence on flow direction in weathered rock. About 3,500 water samples from the injection and observation wells were analyzed for tritium during the test period. Concentrations detected spanned 11 orders of magnitude. Measurable concentrations were still present in the two injection wells and most observation wells 5 years after the tracer was introduced. Matrix diffusion may have played a significant role in these tests. The process would account for the sustained concentrations of tritium at many of the observation wells, the long-term residual concentrations at the injection and observation wells, and the apparent slow movement of the centers of mass across the two well fields. The process also would have implications regarding aquifer remediation. Other tracertests have been conducted in the regolith of the Conasauga Group. Results differ from the results described in this report.

A multi-borehole pumping and tracertest in fractured chalk is revisited and reinterpreted in the light of fractional flow. Pumping test data analyzed using a fractional flow model gives sub-spherical flow dimensions of 2.2-2.4 which are interpreted as due to the partially penetrating nature of the pumped borehole. The fractional flow model offers greater versatility than classical methods for interpreting pumping tests in fractured aquifers but its use has been hampered because the hydraulic parameters derived are hard to interpret. A method is developed to convert apparent transmissivity and storativity (L4-n/T and S2-n) to conventional transmissivity and storativity (L2/T and dimensionless) for the case where flow dimension, 2 < n < 3. These parameters may then be used in further applications, facilitating application of the fractional flow model. In the case illustrated, improved fits to drawdown data are obtained and the resultant transmissivities and storativities are found to be lower by 30% and an order of magnitude respectively, than estimates from classical methods. The revised hydraulic parameters are used in a reinterpretation of a tracertest using an analytical dual porosity model of solute transport incorporating matrix diffusion and modified for fractional flow. Model results show smaller fracture apertures, spacings and dispersivities than those when 2D flow is assumed. The pumping and tracertest results and modeling presented illustrate the importance of recognizing the potential fractional nature of flow generated by partially penetrating boreholes in fractured aquifers in estimating aquifer properties and interpreting tracer breakthrough curves.

The gas-phase partitioning tracer method was used to estimate non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL), water, and air saturations in the vadose zone at a chlorinated-solvent contaminated field site in Tucson, AZ. The tracertest was conducted in a fractured-clay system that is the confin...

A radionuclide tracertest was conducted in 1963 by the U.S. Geological Survey at the Project Gnome underground nuclear test site, approximately 40 km southeast of Carlsbad, New Mexico. The tracer study was carried out under the auspices of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) to study the transport behavior of radionuclides in fractured rock aquifers. The Culebra Dolomite was chosen for the test because it was considered to be a reasonable analogue of the fractured carbonate aquifer at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), the principal location of U.S. underground nuclear tests. Project Gnome was one of a small number of underground nuclear tests conducted by the AEC at sites distant from the NTS. The Gnome device was detonated on December 10, 1961 in an evaporate unit at a depth of 360 m below ground surface. Recently, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) implemented an environmental restoration program to characterize, remediate, and close these offsite nuclear test areas. An early step in this process is performance of a preliminary risk analysis of the hazard posed by each site. The Desert Research Institute has performed preliminary hydrologic risk evaluations for the groundwater transport pathway at Gnome. That evaluation included the radioactive tracertest as a possible source because the test introduced radionuclides directly into the Culebra Dolomite, which is the only aquifer at the site. This report presents a preliminary evaluation of the radionuclide tracertest as a source for radionuclide migration in the Culebra Dolomite. The results of this study will assist in planning site characterization activities and refining estimates of the radionuclide source for comprehensive models of groundwater transport st the Gnome site.

In February and March 2012, a tracertest involving the injection of a radionuclide-colloid cocktail was conducted in the MI shear zone at the Grimsel Test Site, Switzerland, as part of the Colloids Formation and Migration (CFM) project. The colloids were derived from FEBEX bentonite, which is mined in Spain and is being considered as a potential waste package backfill in a Spanish nuclear waste repository. The tracertest, designated test 12-02 (second test in 2012), involved the injection of the tracer cocktail into borehole CFM 06.002i2 and extraction from the Pinkel surface packer at the main access tunnel wall approximately 6.1 m from the injection interval. The test configuration is depicted in Figure 1. This configuration has been used in several conservative tracertests and two colloid-homologue tracertests since 2007, and it is will be employed in an upcoming test involving the emplacement of a radionuclide-doped bentonite plug into CFM 06.002i2 to evaluate the swelling and erosion of the bentonite and the transport of bentonite colloids and radionuclides from the source to the extraction point at the tunnel wall. Interpretive analyses of several of the previous tracertests, from 09-01 through 12-02 were provided in two previous Used Fuel Disposition Program milestone reports (Arnold et al., 2011; Kersting et al., 2012). However, only the data for the conservative tracer Amino-G Acid was previously analyzed from test 12-02 because the other tracer data from this test were not available at the time. This report documents the first attempt to quantitatively analyze the radionuclide and colloid breakthrough curves from CFM test 12-02. This report was originally intended to also include an experimental assessment of colloid-facilitated transport of uranium by bentonite colloids in the Grimsel system, but this assessment was not conducted because it was reported by German collaborators at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) that neither uranium nor

Methane is an important greenhouse gas, and landfills are the largest anthropogenic source in many developed countries. Bioreactor landfills have been proposed as one means of abating greenhouse gas emissions from landfills. Here, the decomposition of organic wastes is enhanced by the controlled addition of water or leachate to maintain optimal conditions for waste decomposition. Greenhouse gas abatement is accomplished by sequestration of photosynthetically derived carbon in wastes, CO2 offsets from energy use of waste derived gas, and mitigation of methane emission from the wastes. An important issue in the operation of bioreactor landfills is knowing how much water to add and where to add it. Accurate methods for measuring the amount of water in landfills would be valuable aids for implementing leachate recirculation systems. Current methods for measuring water are inadequate, though, since they provide point measurements and are frequently affected by heterogeneity of the solid waste composition and solid waste compaction. The value of point measurements is significantly reduced in systems where water flows preferentially, such as in landfills. Here, spatially integrated measurements might be of greater value. We are evaluating a promising technology, the partitioning gas tracertest, to measure the water saturation within landfills, the amount of free water in solid waste divided by the volume of the voids. The partitioning gas tracertest was recently developed by researchers working in the vadose zone. We report the results from laboratory and field tests designed to evaluate the partitioning gas tracertest within an anaerobic landfill operated by the Delaware Solid Waste Authority. Vertical wells were installed within the landfill to inject and extract tracer gases. Gas flow and tracer gas movement in the solid waste were controlled by the landfill's existing gas collection system, which included vertical wells installed throughout the landfill through

For the past several years LBL has been carrying out experiments at various fractured rock sites to determine the fundamental nature of the propagation of seismic waves in fractured media. These experiments have been utilizing high frequency (1000 to 10000 Hz.) signals in a cross-hole configuration at scales of several tens of meters. Three component sources and receivers are used to map fracture density, and orientation. The goal of the experiments has been to relate the seismological parameters to the hydrological parameters, if possible, in order to provide a more accurate description of a starting model for hydrological characterization. The work is ultimately aimed at the characterization and monitoring of the Yucca Mountain site for the storage of nuclear waste. In addition to these controlled experiments multicomponent VSP work has been carried out at several sites to determine fracture characteristics. The results to date indicate that both P-wave and S-wave can be used to map the location of fractures. In addition, fractures that are open and conductive are much more visible to seismic waves that non-conductive fractures. The results of these tests indicate direct use in an unsaturated environment. 12 refs., 10 figs.

Recently, investigations were conducted for geological and hydrogeological characterisation of the sedimentary coastal basin of Horonobe (Hokkaido, Japan). Coastal areas are typical geological settings in Japan, which are less tectonically active than the mountain ranges. In Asia, and especially in Japan, these areas are often densely populated. Therefore, it is important to investigate the behaviour of solutes in such unconsolidated aquifers. In such settings sometimes only single boreholes or groundwater monitoring wells are available for aquifer testing for various reasons, e.g. depths of more than 100 m below ground level and slow groundwater velocities due to density driven flow. A standard tracertest with several involved groundwater monitoring wells is generally very difficult or even not possible at these depths. One of the most important questions in our project was how we can obtain information about chemical and hydraulic properties in such aquifers. Is it possible to characterize solute transport behaviour parameters with only one available groundwater monitoring well or borehole? A so-called "push-pull" test may be one suitable method for aquifer testing with only one available access point. In a push-pull test a known amount of several solutes including a conservative tracer is injected into the aquifer ("push") and afterwards extracted ("pull"). The measured breakthrough curve during the pumping back phase can then be analysed. This method has already been used previously with various aims, also in the recent project (e.g. Hebig et al. 2011, Zeilfelder et al. 2012). However, different test setups produced different tracer breakthrough curves. As no systematic evaluation of this aquifer tracertest method was done so far, nothing is known about its repeatability. Does the injection and extraction rate influence the shape of the breakthrough curve? Which role plays the often applied "chaser", which is used to push the test solution out from the

Residual trapping, that is CO2 held in the rock pore space due to capillarity, is an important storage mechanism in geo-sequestration of over the short to medium term (up to 1000 years). As such residual CO2 saturation is a critical reservoir parameter for assessing the storage capacity and security of carbon capture and storage (CCS). As a component of the CO2CRC's Residual Gas Saturation and Dissolution Test at the CO2CRC Otway Project site in Victoria (Australia), we have recently tested a suite of reactive esters (triacetin, tripropionin and propylene glycol diacetate) in a single well chemical tracertest to determine residual CO2 saturation. The goal of this project was to assess and validate a suite of possible tests that could be implemented to determine residual CO2 saturation. For this test, the chemical tracers were injected with a saturated CO2/water mixture into the formation (that is already at residual CO2 saturation) where they were allowed to 'soak' for approximately 10 days allowing for the partial hydrolysis of the esters to their corresponding carboxylic acids and alcohols. Water containing the tracers was then produced from the well resulting in over 600 tracer samples over a period of 12 hours. A selection of these samples were analysed for tracer content and to establish tracer breakthrough curves. To understand the behaviour of these chemical tracers in the downhole environment containing residually trapped supercritical CO2 and formation water, it is necessary to determine the supercritical CO2/water partition coefficients. We have previously determined these in the laboratory (Myers et al., 2012) and they are used here to model the tracer behaviour and provide an estimate of the residual CO2 saturation. Two different computational simulators were used to analyse the tracer breakthrough profiles. The first is based on simple chromatographic retardation and has been used extensively in single well chemical tracertests to determine residual

Push-pull tracertest was conducted to acquire precise site information and characteristics on a Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)-site at Eumseong, Korea. Push-pull test is very simple to design, and perform. The test is also convenient to set a duration of experiment period based on the background ground-water velocity. In this study, SF6 and Chloride were used as tracers known as non-reactive tracers. The performed push-pull tests were consisted of 3 phases: 1) solution injection phase; 2) rest phase; and 3) pumping phase. We used a portable multi-level packer to isolate the injection interval. Samples were obtained during pumping phase at every 2 minutes. LTC level-logger was installed to record real-time water level, temperature, and electric conductivity before and during the experiment. A breakthrough curve was obtained by analyzing LTC level-logger data and tracer concentration of water samples. The values of ground water velocity and effective porosity from two tracers came out similar values. SF6 and chloride did not show intervening effect and display similar transport behavior. It seems that both tracers can be applied independently or together to perform tracertests for estimation of transport behaviors of dissolved volatile components. Acknowledgement: Financial support was provided by the "R&D Project on Environmental Management of Geologic CO2 Storage" from the KEITI (Project Number: 2014001810003) and Korea Ministry of Environment as "The GAIA project(2014000540010)"

Interfacial areas between an immiscible organic liquid (NAPL) and water were measured for two natural porous media using two methods, aqueous-phase interfacial partitioning tracertests and synchrotron X-ray microtomography. The interfacial areas measured with the tracertests were similar to previously reported values obtained with the method. The values were, however, significantly larger than those obtained from microtomography. Analysis of microtomography data collected before and after introduction of the interfacial tracer solution indicated that the surfactant tracer had minimal impact on fluid-phase configuration and interfacial areas under conditions associated with typical laboratory application. The disparity between the tracer-test and microtomography values is attributed primarily to the inability of the microtomography method to resolve interfacial area associated with microscopic surface heterogeneity. This hypothesis is consistent with results recently reported for a comparison of microtomographic analysis and interfacial tracertests conducted for an air-water system. The tracer-test method provides a measure of effective, total (capillary and film) interfacial area, whereas microtomography can be used to determine separately both capillary-associated and film-associated interfacial areas. Both methods appear to provide useful information for given applications. A key to their effective use is recognizing the specific nature of the information provided by each, as well as associated limitations.

The identification of unsaturated flow parameters is traditionally based on core re- trieval and laboratory testing. This approach is notoriously affected by severe draw- backs, such as the likely disturbance to samples and a mismatch between the scale of interest (m) and the sample scale (cm). In this study, we endorse a different approach, which relies upon borehole geophysical (natural gamma) logs for structural/geological information and cross-hole geophysical (radar) data for the measurement of the hy- drological response to natural loads (effective rainfall). This approach is applied to the results of an extensive monitoring programme at the Eggborough experimental site in Yorkshire, UK. The gamma ray logs are utilised in a geostatistical framework to gen- erate, in a stochastic fashion, simplified lithology scenarios. Each lithology is charac- terised by a set of unsaturated flow parameters using the van Genuchten model. Each lithological scenario is used for 1D vertical unsaturated flow simulations of rainfall recharge at a few locations. Cross-hole zero-offset radar surveys at several locations are used to provide time-varying vertical profiles of water content. For each simu- lation, a goodness-of-fit index between predicted and measured moisture content is computed, and is used to rank the likelihood of that parameter set. Both lithology and flow parameters are generated via a nested Monte Carlo approach. As a result, the likely ranges of unsaturated hydraulic parameters are estimated.

Tracertesting in the fractured volcanic aquifer near Yucca Mountain, and in the alluvial aquifer south of Yucca Mountain, Nevada has been conducted in the past to determine the flow and transport properties of groundwater in those geologic units. However, no tracertesting has been conducted across the alluvium/volcanic interface. This thesis documents the investigative process and subsequent analysis and interpretations used to identify a location suitable for installation of a tracertesting complex, near existing Nye County wells south of Yucca Mountain. The work involved evaluation of existing geologic data, collection of wellbore seismic data, and a detailed surface seismic reflection survey. Borehole seismic data yielded useful information on alluvial P-wave velocities. Seismic reflection data were collected over a line of 4.5-km length, with a 10-m receiver and shot spacing. Reflection data were extensively processed to image the alluvium/volcanic interface. A location for installation of an alluvial/volcanic tracertesting complex was identified based on one of the reflectors imaged in the reflection survey; this site is located between existing Nye County monitoring wells, near an outcrop of Paintbrush Tuff. Noise in the reflection data (due to some combination of seismic source signal attenuation, poor receiver-to-ground coupling, and anthropogenic sources) were sources of error that affected the final processed data set. In addition, in some areas low impedance contrast between geologic units caused an absence of reflections in the data, complicating the processing and interpretation. Forward seismic modeling was conducted using Seismic Un*x; however, geometry considerations prevented direct comparison of the modeled and processed data sets. Recommendations for additional work to address uncertainties identified during the course of this thesis work include: drilling additional boreholes to collect borehole seismic and geologic data; reprocessing a

A statistically exactly solvable model for passive tracers is introduced as a test model for the authors' Nonlinear Extended Kalman Filter (NEKF) as well as other filtering algorithms. The model involves a Gaussian velocity field and a passive tracer governed by the advection-diffusion equation with an imposed mean gradient. The model has direct relevance to engineering problems such as the spread of pollutants in the air or contaminants in the water as well as climate change problems concerning the transport of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide with strongly intermittent probability distributions consistent with the actual observations of the atmosphere. One of the attractive properties of the model is the existence of the exact statistical solution. In particular, this unique feature of the model provides an opportunity to design and test fast and efficient algorithms for real-time data assimilation based on rigorous mathematical theory for a turbulence model problem with many active spatiotemporal scales. Here, we extensively study the performance of the NEKF which uses the exact first and second order nonlinear statistics without any approximations due to linearization. The role of partial and sparse observations, the frequency of observations and the observation noise strength in recovering the true signal, its spectrum, and fat tail probability distribution are the central issues discussed here. The results of our study provide useful guidelines for filtering realistic turbulent systems with passive tracers through partial observations.

A simple urban dispersion model is tested that is based on the Gaussian plume model and modifications to the Briggs urban dispersion curves. An initial dispersion coefficient ( σo) of 40 m is assumed to apply in built-up downtown areas, and the stability is assumed to be slightly unstable during the day and slightly stable during the night. Observations from tracer experiments during the Joint Urban 2003 (JU2003) field study in Oklahoma City and the Madison Square Garden 2005 (MSG05) field study in Manhattan are used for model testing. The tracer SF 6 was released during JU2003 near ground level in the downtown area and concentrations were observed at over 100 locations within 4 km from the source. Six perfluorocarbon tracer (PFT) gases were released near ground level during MSG05 and sampled by about 20 samplers at the surface and on building roofs. The evaluations compare concentrations normalized by source release rate, C/ Q, for each sampler location and each tracer release, where data were used only if both the observed and predicted concentrations exceeded threshold levels. At JU2003, for all samplers and release times, the fractional mean bias (FB) is about 0.2 during the day (20% mean underprediction) and 0.0 during the night. About 45 -50% of the predictions are within a factor of two (FAC2) of the observations day and night at JU2003. The maximum observed C/ Q is about two times the maximum predicted C/ Q both day and night. At MSG05, for all PFTs, surface samplers, and release times, FB is 0.14 and FAC2 is about 45%. The overall 60 min-averaged maximum C/ Q is underpredicted by about 40% for the surface samplers and is overpredicted by about 25% for the building-roof samplers.

Knowledge about the strength and travel times of hyporheic exchange is vital to predict reactive transport and biogeochemical cycling in streams. In this study, we outline how to perform and analyze stream tracertests using pulse injections of fluorescein as conservative and resazurin as reactive tracer, which is selectively transformed to resorufin when exposed to metabolically active zones, presumably located in the hyporheic zone. We present steps of preliminary data analysis and apply a conceptually simple mathematical model of the tracertests to separate effects of in-stream transport from hyporheic exchange processes. To overcome the dependence of common parameter estimation schemes on the initial guess, we derive posterior parameter probability density functions using an adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo scheme. By this, we can identify maximum-likelihood parameter values of in-stream transport, strength of hyporheic exchange, distribution of hyporheic travel times as well as sorption and reactivity coefficients of the hyporheic zone. We demonstrate the approach by a tracer experiment at River Goldersbach in southern Germany (60 L/s discharge). In-stream breakthrough curves were recorded with online fluorometers and jointly fitted to simulations of a one-dimensional reactive transport model assuming an exponential hyporheic travel-time distribution. The findings show that the additional analysis of resazurin not only improved the physical basis of the modeling, but was crucial to differentiate between surface transport and hyporheic transient storage of stream solutes. Parameter uncertainties were usually small and could not explain parameter variability between adjacent monitoring stations. The latter as well as a systematic underestimation of the tailing are due to structural errors of the model, particularly the exponential hyporheic travel-time distribution. Mean hyporheic travel times were in the range of 12 min, suggesting that small streambed

Naturally occurring radon in groundwater can be used as an in situ partitioning tracer for locating and quantifying non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) contamination in the subsurface. When combined with the single-well, push-pull test, this methodology has the potential to provide a low-cost alternative to inter-well partitioning tracertests. During a push-pull test, a known volume of test solution (radon-free water containing a conservative tracer) is first injected ("pushed") into a well; flow is then reversed and the test solution/groundwater mixture is extracted ("pulled") from the same well. In the presence of NAPL radon transport is retarded relative to the conservative tracer. Assuming linear equilibrium partitioning, retardation factors for radon can be used to estimate NAPL saturations. The utility of this methodology was evaluated in laboratory and field settings. Laboratory push-pull tests were conducted in both non-contaminated and trichloroethene NAPL (TCE)-contaminated sediment. The methodology was then applied in wells located in non-contaminated and light non-aqueous phase liquid (LNAPL)-contaminated portions of an aquifer at a former petroleum refinery. The method of temporal moments and an approximate analytical solution to the governing transport equations were used to interpret breakthrough curves and estimate radon retardation factors; estimated retardation factors were then used to calculate TCE saturations. Numerical simulations were used to further investigate the behavior of the breakthrough curves. The laboratory and field push-pull tests demonstrated that radon retardation does occur in the presence of TCE and LNAPL and that radon retardation can be used to calculate TCE saturations. Laboratory injection-phase test results in TCE-contaminated sediment yielded radon retardation factors ranging from 1.1 to 1.5, resulting in calculated TCE saturations ranging from 0.2 to 0.9%. Laboratory extraction-phase test results in the same sediment

We present a set of single-well injection withdrawal tracertests in a paleoreef porous reservoir displaying important small-scale heterogeneity. An improved dual-packer probe was designed to perform dirac-like tracer injection and accurate downhole automatic measurements of the tracer concentration during the recovery phase. By flushing the tracer, at constant flow rate, for increasing time duration, we can probe distinctly different reservoir volumes and test the multiscale predictability of the (non-Fickian) dispersion models. First we describe the characteristics, from microscale to meter scale, of the reservoir rock. Second, the specificity of the tracertest setup and the results obtained using two different tracers and measurement methods (salinity-conductivity and fluorescent dye-optical measurement, respectively) are presented. All the tracertests display strongly tailed breakthrough curves (BTC) consistent with diffusion in immobile regions. Conductivity results, measured over 3 orders of magnitude only, could have been easily interpreted by the conventional mobile-immobile (MIM) diffusive mass transfer model of asymptotic log-log slope of -2. However, the fluorescent dye sensor, which allows exploring much lower concentration values, shows that a change in the log-log slope occurs at larger time with an asymptotic value of -1.5, corresponding to the double-porosity model. These results suggest that the conventional, one-slope MIM transfer rate model is too simplistic to account for the real multiscale heterogeneity of the diffusion-dominant fraction of the reservoir.

The ER-6-1 multiple-well aquifer test-tracertest (MWAT-TT) investigated groundwater flow and transport processes relevant to the transport of radionuclides from sources on the Nevada Test Site (NTS) through the lower carbonate aquifer (LCA) hydrostratigraphic unit (HSU). The LCA, which is present beneath much of the NTS, is the principal aquifer for much of southern Nevada. This aquifer consists mostly of limestone and dolomite, and is pervasively fractured. Groundwater flow in this aquifer is primarily in the fractures, and the hydraulic properties are primarily related to fracture frequency and fracture characteristics (e.g., mineral coatings, aperture, connectivity). The objective of the multiple-well aquifer test (MWAT) was to determine flow and hydraulic characteristics for the LCA in Yucca Flat. The data were used to derive representative flow model and parameter values for the LCA. The items of specific interest are: Hydraulic conductivity; Storage parameters; Dual-porosity behavior; and Fracture flow characteristics. The objective of the tracer transport experiment was to evaluate the transport properties and processes of the LCA and to derive representative transport parameter values for the LCA. The properties of specific interest are: Effective porosity; Matrix diffusion; Longitudinal dispersivity; Adsorption characteristics; and Colloid transport characteristics. These properties substantially control the rate of transport of contaminants in the groundwater system and concentration distributions. To best support modeling at the scale of the corrective action unit (CAU), these properties must be investigated at the field scale. The processes represented by these parameters are affected by in-situ factors that are either difficult to investigate at the laboratory scale or operate at a much larger scale than can be reproduced in the laboratory. Measurements at the field scale provide a better understanding of the effective average parameter values. The

Microencapsulation of degradative organisms enhances microorganism survivability. The use of encapsulated cell microbeads for in situ biodegradation depends not only on microorganism survival but also on microbead transport characteristics. Two forced-gradient, recirculating-loop tracer experiments were conducted to evaluate the feasibility of encapsulated cell transport and bioremediation on the basis of polystyrene microsphere transport results. The tracertests were conducted in a shallow, confined, unconsolidated, heterogeneous, sedimentary aquifer using bromide ion and 2 {micro}m, 5 {micro}m, and 15{micro}m microsphere tracers. Significant differences were observed in the transport of bromide solute and polystyrene microspheres. Microspheres reached peak concentrations in monitoring wells before bromide, which was thought to reflect the influence of aquifer heterogeneity. Greater decreases in microsphere C/C{sub 0} ratios were observed with distance from the injection wells than in bromide C/C{sub 0} ratios, which was attributed to particle filtration and/or settling. Several methods might be considered for introducing encapsulated cell microbeads into a subsurface environment, including direct injection into a contaminated aquifer zone, injection through a recirculating ground water flow system, or emplacement in a subsurface microbial curtain in advance of a plume. However, the in situ use of encapsulated cells in an aquifer is probably limited to aquifers containing sufficiently large pore spaces, allowing passage of at least some encapsulated cells. The use of encapsulated cells may also be limited by differences in solute and microbead transport patterns and flowpath clogging by larger encapsulated cell microbeads.

Soil treatment of wastewater has the potential to achieve high purification efficiency, yet the understanding and predictability of purification with respect to removal of viruses and other pathogens is limited. Research has been completed to quantify the removal of virus and bacteria through the use of microbial surrogates and conservative tracers during controlled experiments with three-dimensional pilot-scale soil treatment systems in the laboratory and during the testing of full-scale systems under field conditions. The surrogates and tracers employed included two viruses (MS-2 and PRID-1 bacteriophages), one bacterium (ice-nucleating active Pseudomonas), and one conservative tracer (bromide ion). Efforts have also been made to determine the relationship between viruses and fecal coliform bacteria in soil samples below the wastewater infiltrative surface, and the correlation between Escherichia coil concentrations measured in percolating soil solution as compared with those estimated from analyses of soil solids. The results suggest episodic breakthrough of virus and bacteria during soil treatment of wastewater and a 2 to 3 log (99-99.9%) removal of virus and near complete removal of fecal coliform bacteria during unsaturated flow through 60 to 90 cm of sandy medium. Results also suggest that the fate of fecal coliform bacteria may be indicative of that of viruses in soil media near the infiltrative surface receiving wastewater effluent. Concentrations of fecal coliform in percolating soil solution may be conservatively estimated from analysis of extracted soil solids.

SummaryThe Pajaro River, central coastal California, consistently loses 0.2-0.4 m 3/s of discharge along an 11.42-km experimental reach late in the water year, when discharge is ⩽4.5 m 3/s. Channel loss occurs throughout this reach, but is greatest in magnitude near the bottom of the reach. Water isotopic data and other observations suggest that channel loss results mainly from streambed seepage, as opposed to evapotranspiration. If it occurs throughout the year, the channel loss along this short stream reach could contribute 6-13 × 10 6 m 3 of annual aquifer recharge, or ˜20-40% of current sustainable basin yield. We performed a series of tracer injections along this reach to determine if hydrologic exchange occurs within this strongly-losing stream. We found that during periods of high channel loss, there were also comparable storage exchange fluxes and lateral inflow of tracer-free water. Within upper and lower parts of the experimental reach, storage exchange fluxes are about 10 times greater than lateral inflow. The former are associated with the movement of water between the main channel and surface or subsurface storage zones. In this system, it is likely that the latter are primarily associated with spatially- or temporally-long subsurface flow paths within the shallow streambed, as opposed to inflow of ground water from deeper in the basin. Along both upper and lower parts of the experimental reach, lateral inflow tends to increase as channel discharge decreases. In contrast, storage exchange fluxes increase with decreasing discharge along the upper parts of the reach, but decrease with decreasing discharge along the lower parts. Gauging and tracertest results suggest that subsurface storage exchange and loss may occur simultaneously, and that the lateral inflow of tracer-free water can be caused by long-scale subsurface flow as well as ground water making its first appearance in the channel.

Deterministic description of the discrete features interpreted from site characterization is desirable for developing a discrete fracture network conceptual model. It is often difficult, however, to delineate preferential flow path through a network of discrete fractures in the field. A preliminary cross-borehole nano-iron tracertest was conducted to characterize the preferential flow path in fractured shale bedrock at a hydrogeological research station. Prior to the test, heat-pulse flowmeter measurements were performed to detect permeable fracture zones at both the injection well and the observation well. While a few fracture zones are found permeable, most are not really permeable. Chemical reduction method was used to synthesize nano zero-valent iron particles with a diameter of 50~150 nm. The conductivity of nano-iron solution is about 3100 μs/cm. The recorded fluid conductivity shows the arrival of nano-iron solution in the observation well 11.5 minutes after it was released from the injection well. The magnetism of zero-valent iron enables it to be absorbed on magnet array designed to locate the depth of incoming tracer. We found nearly all of absorbed iron on the magnet array in the observation well were distributed near the most permeable fracture zone. The test results revealed a preferential flow path through a permeable fracture zone between the injection well and the observation well. The estimated hydraulic conductivity of the connected fracture is 2.2 × 10-3 m/s. This preliminary study indicated that nano-iron tracertest has the potential to characterize preferential flow path in fractured rock.

Recent advances in geophysical methods have been increasingly exploited as inverse modeling tools in groundwater hydrology. In particular, several attempts to constrain the hydrogeophysical inverse problem to reduce inversion error have been made using time-lapse geophysical measurements through both coupled and uncoupled inversion approaches. On one hand, the main advantage of coupled approaches is that the numerical models for the geophysical and hydrological processes are linked together such that the geophysical data are inverted directly for the hydrological properties of interest, avoiding artifacts related to the classical geophysical inversions. On the other hand, uncoupled approaches, relying upon a geophysical inversion that is carried out before estimating the hydrological variable of interest, could reveal something about the process that is not accounted for in a model, i.e., they are not constrained by the conceptualization of the hydrological model. In spite of the appeal and popularity of fully coupled inversion approaches, their superiority over more traditional uncoupled methods still needs to be objectively proven; the aim of this work is to shed some light on this debate. An approach based on the Lagrangian formulation of transport and the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) is here applied to assess the spatial distribution of hydraulic conductivity (K) by assimilating time-lapse cross-hole electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) data generated for a synthetic tracertest in a heterogeneous aquifer. In the coupled version of the proposed inverse modeling approach, the K distribution is retrieved by assimilating raw ERT resistance data without the need for a preliminary geoelectrical inversion. In the uncoupled version, K is estimated by assimilating electrical conductivity data derived from a previously performed classical geophysical inversion of the same resistance dataset. We compare the performance of the two approaches in a number of simulation

Cross-hole electrical resistivity tomography is a useful tool in geotechnical, hydrogeological or fluid/gas plume migration studies. It allows better characterization of deep subsurface structures and monitoring of the involved processes. However, due to the large amount of possible four-electrode combinations between boreholes, the choice of the most efficient ones for rapid plume migration experiments (real-time monitoring), becomes a challenge. In this work, a numerical simulation to assess the capabilities and constraints of the most common cross-hole configurations for real-time monitoring is presented. Four-electrode configurations, sensitivity, dependence on the body location and amount of data were taken into account. The analysis of anomaly detection and the symmetry of the sensitivity pattern of cross-hole configurations allowed significant reduction of the amount of data and maintaining the maximum potential resolution of each configuration for real-time monitoring. The obtained results also highlighted the benefit of using the cross-hole AB-MN configuration (with both current - or potential - electrodes located in the same borehole) combined with other configurations with complementary sensitivity pattern.

A demonstration test using radio-isotope (RI) tracers during the manufacturing of inner drum shielding material from the recycling of operating reactor scrap metal was completed and the following results were obtained. The behavior of five radionuclides (Mn-54, Co-60, Zn-65, Sr-85 and Cs-137) was established. The time-dependent behaviors of the radionuclides in molten steel and in slag were investigated. The radioactivity distributions in metal products were homogeneous. Dose equivalent rates in the working area were below background levels and radioactive dust concentrations in the air were below detection limits.

The single-well injection withdrawal (SWIW) test, a tracertest utilizing only one well, is proposed as a useful contribution to site characterization of fractured rock, as well as providing parameters relevant to tracer diffusion and sorption. The usual conceptual model of flow and solute transport through fractured rock with low matrix permeability involves solute advection and dispersion through a fracture network coupled with diffusion and sorption into the surrounding rock matrix. Unlike two-well tracertests, results of SWIW tests are ideally independent of advective heterogeneity, channeling and flow dimension, and, instead, focus on diffusive and sorptive characteristics of tracer (solute) transport. Thus, they can be used specifically to study such characteristics and evaluate the diffusive parameters associated with tracer transport through fractured media. We conduct simulations of SWIW tests on simple and complex fracture models, the latter being defined as having two subfractures with altered rock blocks in between and gouge material in their apertures. Using parameters from the Aspo site in Sweden, we calculate and study SWIW tracer breakthrough curves (BTCs) from a test involving four days of injection and then withdrawal. By examining the peak concentration C{sub pk} of the SWIW BTCs for a variety of parameters, we confirm that C{sub pk} is largely insensitive to the fracture advective flow properties, in particular to permeability heterogeneity over the fracture plane or to subdividing the flow into two subfractures in the third dimension orthogonal to the fracture plane. The peak arrival time t{sub pk} is not a function of fracture or rock properties, but is controlled by the time schedule of the SWIW test. The study shows that the SWIW test is useful for the study of tracer diffusion-sorption processes, including the effect of the so-called flow-wetted surface (FWS) of the fracture. Calculations with schematic models with different FWS values are

A radially convergent conservative tracer injection test was conducted between boreholes UE-25 #2 and UE-25 c #3 of the C-hole complex at Yucca Mountain to determine effective porosity and longitudinal dispersivity. Approximately 47% of the tracer mass was recovered and a dual-porosity analytical model replicates the breakthrough curve. Fractured-rock analyses focus on the fracture-porosity and geometry as the controlling factors in transport.

A permanent geoelectrical subsurface imaging system has been installed at a contaminated land site to monitor changes in groundwater quality after the completion of a remediation programme. Since the resistivities of earth materials are sensitive to the presence of contaminants and their break-down products, 4-dimensional resistivity imaging can act as a surrogate monitoring technology for tracking and visualising changes in contaminant concentrations at much higher spatial and temporal resolution than manual intrusive investigations. The test site, a municipal car park built on a former gasworks, had been polluted by a range of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and dissolved phase contaminants. It was designated statutory contaminated land under Part IIA of the UK Environmental Protection Act due to the risk of polluting an underlying minor aquifer. Resistivity monitoring zones were established on the boundaries of the site by installing vertical electrode arrays in purpose-drilled boreholes. After a year of monitoring data had been collected, a tracertest was performed to investigate groundwater flow velocity and to demonstrate rapid volumetric monitoring of natural attenuation processes. A saline tracer was injected into the confined aquifer, and its motion and evolution were visualised directly in high-resolution tomographic images in near real-time. Breakthrough curves were calculated from independent resistivity measurements, and the estimated seepage velocities from the monitoring images and the breakthrough curves were found to be in good agreement with each other and with estimates based on the piezometric gradient and assumed material parameters.

Two-well tracertests are often conducted to investigate subsurface solute transport in the field. Analyzing breakthrough curves in extraction and monitoring wells using numerical methods is nontrivial due to highly nonuniform flow conditions. We extended approximate analytical solutions for the advection-dispersion equation for an injection-extraction well doublet in a homogeneous confined aquifer under steady-state flow conditions for equal injection and extraction rates with no transverse dispersion and negligible ambient flow, and implemented the solutions in Microsoft Excel using Visual Basic for Application (VBA). Functions were implemented to calculate concentrations in extraction and monitoring wells at any location due to a step or pulse injection. Type curves for a step injection were compared with those calculated by numerically integrating the solution for a pulse injection. The results from the two approaches are similar when the dispersivity is small. As the dispersivity increases, the latter was found to be more accurate but requires more computing time. The code was verified by comparing the results with published-type curves and applied to analyze data from the literature. The method can be used as a first approximation for two-well tracertest design and data analysis, and to check accuracy of numerical solutions. The code and example files are publicly available. PMID:21797850

Two-well tracertests are often conducted to investigate subsurface solute transport in the field. Analyzing breakthrough curves in the extraction and monitoring wells using numerical methods is nontrivial due to highly nonuniform flow conditions. We extended, and implemented analytical solutions for the convection-dispersion equation for an injection-extraction well-duplet in a homogeneous confined aquifer under steady state conditions. Functions were provided to calculate the concentrations in the extraction and monitoring wells at any location due to a step or pulse injection. Type curves for a step injection were compared with those calculated by numerically integrating the solution for a pulse injection. The results from the two approaches are similar when the dispersivity is small. As the dispersivity increases, the latter was found to be more accurate but requires more computing time. The code was verified by comparing the results with published type curves and applied to analyze data from the literature. It can be used as a first approximation for two-well tracertest data analysis, and to check accuracy of numerical solutions. The code and example files are publically-available.

Two-well tracertests are often conducted to investigate subsurface solute transport in the field. Analyzing breakthrough curves in extraction and monitoring wells using numerical methods is nontrivial due to highly nonuniform flow conditions. We extended approximate analytical solutions for the advection-dispersion equation for an injection-extraction well doublet in a homogeneous confined aquifer under steady-state flow conditions for equal injection and extraction rates with no transverse dispersion and negligible ambient flow, and implemented the solutions in Microsoft Excel using Visual Basic for Application (VBA). Functions were implemented to calculate concentrations in extraction and monitoring wells at any location due to a step or pulse injection. Type curves for a step injection were compared with those calculated by numerically integrating the solution for a pulse injection. The results from the two approaches are similar when the dispersivity is small. As the dispersivity increases, the latter was found to be more accurate but requires more computing time. The code was verified by comparing the results with published-type curves and applied to analyze data from the literature. The method can be used as a first approximation for two-well tracertest design and data analysis, and to check accuracy of numerical solutions. The code and example files are publicly available.

Gas tracer and steam front velocities in addition to flow model calculations are used to characterize rubble bed structure in an oil shale retort. The gas tracer method is shown to have superior resolution to the steam front method in detecting rubble bed variations. The tracer method is potentially less expensive. Recommendations for further research are made.

In 1998 a joint project between the universities of Lancaster and Leeds, funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council and the UK Environment Agency, was initiated to examine, using geophysical methods, unsaturated flow and transport processes at two purposely developed field sites in the UK Sherwood Sandstone. More recently work by Lancaster university funded by a UK Natural Environment Research Council PhD studentship (awarded to Peter Winship) has continued the investigation at the two sites. This work, so far, has demonstrated: how cross-borehole (borehole to borehole) radar tomography can be used to monitor changes in moisture content in the unsaturated zone due to natural and forced (tracer) inputs (Binley et al., 2001); the evaluation of seasonal variation of moisture content profiles using high-resolution borehole resistivity and radar profiling (Binley et al., 2002a); initial attempts to utilize the geophysical data to develop numerical predictive models of unsaturated flow (Binley et al., 2002b; Binley et al, 2003; Binley and Beven, 2003). In addition, petrophysical models relating geophysical data to hydrological properties have been developed (West et al., 2003). Here we provide a data report on two tracer experiments conducted at one of the field sites. Within the report we describe the site layout and present summary results from the two tracertests. In the appendix a file map is provided to allow identification of relevant files in the dataset accompanying this report. The two techniques used here are three-dimensional time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and lime-lapse cross-borehole radar tomography and profiling. They provide geophysical measurements that can be related to the moisture content of the subsurface, and subsequently to the conductivity of that moisture content. They also yield data on a scale that is appropriate for numerical simulations of water movement in the subsurface. The two methods have been applied at a

An iterative inverse method, the sequential self-calibration method, is developed for mapping spatial distribution of a hydraulic conductivity field by conditioning on nonreactive tracer breakthrough curves. A streamline-based, semi-analytical simulator is adopted to simulate solute transport in a heterogeneous aquifer. The simulation is used as the forward modeling step. In this study, the hydraulic conductivity is assumed to be a deterministic or random variable. Within the framework of the streamline-based simulator, the efficient semi-analytical method is used to calculate sensitivity coefficients of the solute concentration with respect to the hydraulic conductivity variation. The calculated sensitivities account for spatial correlations between the solute concentration and parameters. The performance of the inverse method is assessed by two synthetic tracertests conducted in an aquifer with a distinct spatial pattern of heterogeneity. The study results indicate that the developed iterative inverse method is able to identify and reproduce the large-scale heterogeneity pattern of the aquifer given appropriate observation wells in these synthetic cases. ?? International Association for Mathematical Geology 2008.

"Push-pull" tracertests are a suitable tracertest method for hydrochemical charac-terization of an aquifer in a single-well setting (e.g. in deep geothermal systems). A known amount of selected solutes as conservative and reactive tracers is injected into the aquifer ("push") and afterwards extracted ("pull"). In many cases, a so-called "chaser", which is just original groundwater without any added solutes, is injected directly after the injection of the test solution. Its objective is to push the test solution out of the bore-hole into the aquifer and therefore to mini-mize the influence of the gravel pack on the shape of the breakthrough curve. The influence of the chaser on the tracer breakthrough curve is unknown so far. Also, the determination of the appropriate volume for the chaser is a difficult task if at all applied. A first experiment was conducted with the objective to compare three push-pull tests with similar injection volumes, two tests with and one without a chaser. Results show that the application of a chaser lowers the main peak concentration. However, it does not alter the tailing of the breakthrough curve nor does it have a negative in-fluence on tracer mass recovery. In a second experiment, a new method was developed to determine the optimal chaser volume by testing seven different chaser injection volumes combined with temporal moment analysis and comparison of the mean residence times of the in-jected tracer fluid. As a result, the application of a chaser is recommended, when reactions of injected solutes within the open well or the gravel pack should be avoided. If a chaser is used, the new method mentioned above can easily be used to determine the required chaser injection volume. The experiments were conducted at the Hamasato test site in Horonobe (Hokkaido, Japan).

Understanding colloid transport in ground water is essential to assessing the migration of colloid-size contaminants, the facilitation of dissolved contaminant transport by colloids, in situ bioremediation, and the health risks of pathogen contamination in drinking water wells. Much has been learned through laboratory and field-scale colloid tracertests, but progress has been hampered by a lack of consistent tracertesting methodology at different scales and fluid velocities. This paper presents laboratory and field tracertests in fractured rock that use the same type of colloid tracer over an almost three orders-of-magnitude range in scale and fluid velocity. Fluorescently-dyed carboxylate-modified latex (CML) microspheres (0.19 to 0.98 ??m diameter) were used as tracers in (1) a naturally fractured tuff sample, (2) a large block of naturally fractured granite, (3) a fractured granite field site, and (4) another fractured granite/schist field site. In all cases, the mean transport time of the microspheres was shorter than the solutes, regardless of detection limit. In all but the smallest scale test, only a fraction of the injected microsphere mass was recovered, with the smaller microspheres being recovered to a greater extent than the larger microspheres. Using existing theory, we hypothesize that the observed microsphere early arrival was due to volume exclusion and attenuation was due to aggregation and/or settling during transport. In most tests, microspheres were detected using flow cytometry, which proved to be an excellent method of analysis. CML microspheres appear to be useful tracers for fractured rock in forced gradient and short-term natural gradient tests, but longer residence times may result in small microsphere recoveries.Understanding colloid transport in ground water is essential to assessing the migration of colloid-size contaminants, the facilitation of dissolved contaminant transport by colloids, in situ bioremediation, and the health risks

Karst aquifers are characterized by extreme heterogeneity due to the presence of karst conduits embedded in a fractured matrix having a much lower hydraulic conductivity. The resulting contrast in the physical properties of the system implies that the system reacts very rapidly to some changes in the boundary conditions and that numerical models are extremely sensitive to small modifications in properties or positions of the conduits. Furthermore, one major issue in all those models is that the location and size of the conduits is generally unknown. For all those reasons, estimating karst network geometry and their properties by solving an inverse problem is a particularly difficult problem. In this paper, two numerical experiments are described. In the first one, 18,000 flow and transport simulations have been computed and used in a systematic manner to assess statistically if one can retrieve the parameters of a model (geometry and radius of the conduits, hydraulic conductivity of the conduits) from head and tracer data. When two tracertest data sets are available, the solution of the inverse problems indicate with high certainty that there are indeed two conduits and not more. The radius of the conduits are usually well identified but not the properties of the matrix. If more conduits are present in the system, but only two tracertest data sets are available, the inverse problem is still able to identify the true solution as the most probable but it also indicates that the data are insufficient to conclude with high certainty. In the second experiment, a more complex model (including non linear flow equations in conduits) is considered. In this example, gradient-based optimization techniques are proved to be efficient for estimating the radius of the conduits and the hydraulic conductivity of the matrix in a promising and efficient manner. These results suggest that, despite the numerical difficulties, inverse methods should be used to constrain numerical

We used feathers of known origin collected from across the breeding range of a migratory shorebird to test the use of isotope tracers for assigning breeding origins. We analyzed deltaD, delta13C, and delta15N in feathers from 75 mountain plover (Charadrius montanus) chicks sampled in 2001 and from 119 chicks sampled in 2002. We estimated parameters for continuous-response inverse regression models and for discrete-response Bayesian probability models from data for each year independently. We evaluated model predictions with both the training data and by using the alternate year as an independent test dataset. Our results provide weak support for modeling latitude and isotope values as monotonic functions of one another, especially when data are pooled over known sources of variation such as sample year or location. We were unable to make even qualitative statements, such as north versus south, about the likely origin of birds using both deltaD and delta13C in inverse regression models; results were no better than random assignment. Probability models provided better results and a more natural framework for the problem. Correct assignment rates were highest when considering all three isotopes in the probability framework, but the use of even a single isotope was better than random assignment. The method appears relatively robust to temporal effects and is most sensitive to the isotope discrimination gradients over which samples are taken. We offer that the problem of using isotope tracers to infer geographic origin is best framed as one of assignment, rather than prediction. PMID:15891836

Tracertests are conducted to ascertain solute transport parameters of a single rock feature over a 5-m transport pathway. Two different conceptualizations of double-porosity solute transport provide estimates of the tracer breakthrough curves. One of the conceptualizations (single-rate) employs a single effective diffusion coefficient in a matrix with infinite penetration depth. However, the tracer retention between different flow paths can vary as the ratio of flow-wetted surface to flow rate differs between the path lines. The other conceptualization (multirate) employs a continuous distribution of multiple diffusion rate coefficients in a matrix with variable, yet finite, capacity. Application of these two models with the parameters estimated on the tracertest breakthrough curves produces transport results that differ by orders of magnitude in peak concentration and time to peak concentration at the performance assessment (PA) time and length scales (100,000 years and 1,000 m). These differences are examined by calculating the time limits for the diffusive capacity to act as an infinite medium. These limits are compared across both conceptual models and also against characteristic times for diffusion at both the tracertest and PA scales. Additionally, the differences between the models are examined by re-estimating parameters for the multirate model from the traditional double-porosity model results at the PA scale. Results indicate that for each model the amount of the diffusive capacity that acts as an infinite medium over the specified time scale explains the differences between the model results and that tracertests alone cannot provide reliable estimates of transport parameters for the PA scale. Results of Monte Carlo runs of the transport models with varying travel times and path lengths show consistent results between models and suggest that the variation in flow-wetted surface to flow rate along path lines is insignificant relative to variability in

A partitioning tracertest based on gas-phase diffusion in the vadose zone yields estimates of the residual nonaqueous phase liquid (NAPL) saturation. The present paper investigates this technique further by studying diffusive tracer breakthrough curves in the vadose zone for a heterogeneous NAPL distribution. Tracer experiments were performed in a lysimeter with a horizontal layer of artificial kerosene embedded in unsaturated sand. Tracer disappearance curves at the injection point and tracer breakthrough curves at some distance from the injection point were measured inside and outside of the NAPL layer. A numerical code was used to generate independent model predictions based on the physicochemical sand, NAPL, and tracer properties. The measured and modeled tracer breakthrough curves were in good agreement confirming the validity of important modeling assumptions such as negligible sorption of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) tracers to the uncontaminated sand and their fast reversible partitioning between the soil air and the NAPL phase. Subsequently, the model was used to investigate different configurations of NAPL contamination. The experimental and model results show that the tracer disappearance curves of a single-well diffusive partitioning tracertest (DPTT) are dominated by the near-field presence of NAPL around the tip of the soil gas probe. In contrast, breakthrough curves of inter-well tracertests reflect the NAPL saturation in between the probes, although there is no unique interpretation of the tracer signals if the NAPL distribution is heterogeneous. Numerical modeling is useful for the planning of a DPTT application. Simulations suggest that several cubic meters of soil can be investigated with a single inter-well partitioning tracertest of 24-hour duration by placing the injection point in the center of the investigated soil volume and probes at up to 1 m distance for the monitoring of gaseous tracers.

A large-scale natural gradient tracer experiment was conducted on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to examine the transport and dispersion of solutes in a sand and gravel aquifer. The nonreactive tracer, bromide, and the reactive tracers, lithium and molybdate, were injected as a pulse i...

Deterministic delineation of the preferential flow paths and their hydraulic properties are desirable for developing hydrogeological conceptual models in bedrock aquifers. In this study, we proposed using nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) as a tracer to characterize the fractured connectivity and hydraulic properties. Since nZVI particles are magnetic, we designed a magnet array to attract the arriving nZVI particles in the observation well for identifying the location of incoming tracer. This novel approach was examined at two experiment wells with well hydraulic connectivity in a hydrogeological research station in the fractured aquifer. Heat-pulse flowmeter test was used to detect the vertical distribution of permeable zones in the borehole, providing the design basis of tracertest. Then, the less permeable zones in the injection well were sealed by casing to prevent the injected nZVI particles from being stagnated at the bottom hole. Afterwards, hydraulic test was implemented to examine the hydraulic connectivity between two wells. When nZVI slurry was released in the injection well, they could migrate through connected permeable fractures to the observation well. A breakthrough curve was obtained by the fluid conductivity sensor in the observation well, indicating the arrival of nZVI slurry. The iron nanoparticles that were attracted to the magnets in the observation well provide the quantitative information to locate the position of tracer inlet, which corroborates well with the depth of a permeable zone delineated by the flowmeter. Finally, the numerical method was utilized to simulate the process of tracer migration. This article demonstrates that nano-iron tracertest can be a promising approach for characterizing connectivity patterns and transmissivities of the flow paths in the fractured rock.

This spreadsheet application is for tracertest analysis. The analyses are based on the first temporal moment of a tracer. The governing equations are briefly discussed, and the individual steps required of the user are outlined. A series of Excel macros written in Visual Basic calculate mean residence time, swept pore volume, and flow-storage geometry from a tracer history.

A tracertest conducted in 1987 at an artificial-recharge facility in Tucson, Arizona, indicates that solute movement through the poorly sorted stratified alluvial sediments in the unsaturated zone beneath a recharge basin takes place along preferential-flow paths. Movement of a tracer-laced pulse of reclaimed wastewater was monitored using pressure-vacuum lysimeters installed at depths that range from 11 to 45 ft below the bottom of the recharge basin. Tracer-breakthrough curves do not indicate a consistent relation between maximum tracer concentration and depth or between time of tracer breakthrough and depth. Apparent dispersion, as indicated by the slope of the rising leg of the tracer-breakthrough curve, shows no apparent relation with depth. In some cases, the tracer arrived earlier at deep sampling locations than at shallow ones. Velocity of solute flow ranged from 1.9 to 9.0 ft/day. Less interaction between recharge water and solid-phase materials in the unsaturated zone occurs under preferential-flow conditions than if flow occurred as a uniform wetting front. Flow of water through the unsaturated zone is concentrated into fingers or channels under preferential-flow conditions, and the renovating capability of soil is reduced because of the reduced surface area and reduced contact time in the biologically active part of the unsaturated profile. Chemical substances that normally would be decomposed by microbial activity or sorbed by sediment particles can move through the unsaturated zone and cause groundwater contamination under preferential-flow conditions. (USGS)

Source tests were conducted to analyze and characterize diagnostic key tracers for emissions from burning of coals with various ranks. Coal samples included lignite from Germany, semibituminous coal from Arizona, USA, bituminous coal from Wales, UK and sample from briquettes of semibituminous coal, bituminous coal and anthracite from China. Ambient aerosol particulate matter was also collected in three areas of China and a background area in Corvallis, OR (U.S.) to confirm the presence of tracers specific for coal smoke. The results showed a series of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons and phenolic compounds, including PAHs and hydroxy-PAHs as the major tracers, as well as a significant unresolved complex mixture (UCM) of compounds. The tracers that were found characteristic of coal combustion processes included hydroxy-PAHs and PAHs. Atmospheric ambient samples from Beijing and Taiyuan, cities where coal is burned in northern China, revealed that the hydroxy-PAH tracers were present during the wintertime, but not in cities where coal is not commonly used (e.g., Guangzhou, South China). Thus, the mass of hydroxy-PAHs can be apportioned to coal smoke and the source strength modeled by summing the proportional contents of EC (elemental carbon), PAHs, UCM and alkanes with the hydroxy-PAHs. 36 refs., 2 figs., 3 tabs.

Dye-tracing tests have been used by the U.S. Geological Survey, Iowa Water Science Center to determine the time-of-travel in selected Iowa streams from 1990-2006. Time-of-travel data are tabulated for 309 miles of stream reaches in four Iowa drainage basins: the Des Moines, Raccoon, Cedar, and Turkey Rivers. Time-of-travel was estimated in the Des Moines River, Fourmile Creek, North Raccoon River, Raccoon River, Cedar River, and Roberts Creek. Estimation of time-of-travel is important for environmental studies and in determining fate of agricultural constituents and chemical movement through a waterway. The stream reaches range in length from slightly more than 5 miles on Fourmile Creek, to more than 137 miles on the North Raccoon River. The travel times during the dye-tracertests ranged from 7.5 hours on Fourmile Creek to as long as 200 hours on Roberts Creek; velocities ranged from less than 4.50 feet per minute on Roberts Creek to more than 113 feet per minute on the Cedar River.

Tracer experiments were performed in a fracture zone, extending several hundred metres, in crystalline rock in Sweden. This paper describes modellings of tracer experiments (radially converging and dipole test) and their numerical results. We have applied a variable aperture channeling model to both tracertests and evaluated steady-state channel flows in the fracture zone. Solute transport in the channel flows was simulated by a particle-tracking technique considering matrix diffusion. Calculated breakthrough curves and pressures were compared with experimental ones. The calculated breakthrough curve obtained by an equivalen porous medium model was also compared with data from the dipole experiment. Our models seem to explain the experimental results well, but some important assumptions are necessary for calibration of the breakthrough curves. Further experimental data related to the assumptions and geostatistics would be needed for the full validation of the flow and transport model. Study shows that the mean apertures of fractures calibrated with the tracertests increase with increasing flow rates.

This work presents the results of a saline tracertest conducted on an alluvial aquifer placed in the Alento River Valley (Campania region, Southern Italy) and monitored by time-lapse Mise-á-la-Masse measurements. The principal aim of this study is the characterization of the groundwater flow field, both in velocity and direction. The results of the geophysical survey are described and compared to several simulated datasets conducted on a 3D model simulating flow, transport and electrical current. In this manner it is possible to assess the information content of the Mise-á-la-Masse dataset with respect to the groundwater field characteristics. The study shows how a combination of three-dimensional time-lapse modelling of flow, tracer transport and electrical current can substantially contribute towards a quantitative interpretation of Mise-á-la-Masse measurements during saline tracertests. This approach can thus revive the use of Mise-á-la-Masse as a practical, low cost field technique for tracertest monitoring, particularly for shallow aquifers, providing critical information concerning the natural groundwater flow direction and velocity.

Water-NAPL and water-air interfacial areas were measured for sandy, natural porous media using two methods, partitioning tracertests and synchrotron X-ray microtomography. The tracer-test method provides a measure of effective total (capillary and film) interfacial area, whereas microtomography can be used to determine both capillary-associated and total areas. The areas measured with the tracer-test method were similar to previously reported values. The areas measured with the microtomography method were similar to values obtained from a previously reported computational-based analysis. The areas obtained with the tracer- test method were significantly larger than those obtained from microtomography. The disparity between the tracer-test and microtomography values is attributed to the inability of the microtomography method to resolve interfacial area associated with microscopic surface heterogeneity.

A controlled release of CO2 was conducted at a field site in Bozeman, Montana, USA in July of 2008 in a multi-laboratory study of near surface transport and detection technologies. The development of a subsurface CO2 plume near the middle packer section of the horizontal release was studied using soil-gas and surface flux measurements of CO2. A perfluorocarbon tracer was added to the CO2 released from this section of the horizontal well, and the development of atmospheric plumes of the tracer was studied under various meteorological conditions using horizontal and vertical grids of monitors containing sorbent material to collect the tracer. This study demonstrated the feasibility of using remote sensing for the ultra low level detection of atmospheric plumes of tracers as means to monitor the near surface leakage of sequestered CO2.

Transport and biodegradation of linear alkylbenzenesulfonate (LAS) in sewage-contaminated groundwater were investigated for a range of dissolved oxygen concentrations. Both laboratory column and an 80-day continuous injection tracertest field experiments were conducted. The rates of LAS biodegradation increased with increasing dissolved oxygen concentrations and indicated the preferential biodegradation of the longer alkyl chain LAS homologues (i.e., C12 and C13) and external isomers (i.e., 2-and 3- phenyl). However, for similar dissolved oxygen concentrations, mass removal rates for LAS generally were 2-3 times greater in laboratory column experiments than in the field tracertest. Under low oxygen conditions (<1 mg/L) only a fraction of the LAS mixture biodegraded in both laboratory and field experiments. Biodegradation rate constants for the continuous injection field test (0.002-0.08 day-1) were comparable to those estimated for a 3-h injection (pulsed) tracertest conducted under similar biogeochemical conditions, indicating that increasing the exposure time of aquifer sediments to LAS did not increase biodegradation rates.Transport and biodegradation of linear alkylbenzenesulfonate (LAS) in sewage-contaminated groundwater were investigated for a range of dissolved oxygen concentrations. Both laboratory column and an 80-day continuous injection tracertest field experiments were conducted. The rates of LAS biodegradation increased with increasing dissolved oxygen concentrations and indicated the preferential biodegradation of the longer alkyl chain LAS homologues (i.e., C12 and C13) and external isomers (i.e., 2- and 3-phenyl). However, for similar dissolved oxygen concentrations, mass removal rates for LAS generally were 2-3 times greater in laboratory column experiments than in the field tracertest. Under low oxygen conditions (<1 mg/L) only a fraction of the LAS mixture biodegraded in both laboratory and field experiments. Biodegradation rate constants

The release of radioactive iodine into geological media from nuclear waste disposal is an issue that has to be considered since iodine is a biophilic element. 129I is, with 99Tc, one of the two long-lived radionuclides that have the highest mobility in radioactive waste disposal. Within this context, iodide retardation is still a matter of debate. A low value of the retardation factor is generally accepted in soils without organic matter, but the possibility for sorption cannot be completely ruled out. Since isotopic exchange with naturally occurring iodine is one of the main potential sorption mechanisms, site-specific retention parameters are needed. In the present paper, we study iodide transport in a sandy aquifer. A hydrogeological model was built to fit deuterium, bromide and iodide breakthrough data from in situ tracertest experiments. Within the precision range of the fitting, iodide is excluded from 2.5% of the effective porosity by anionic exclusion and presents a field retention factor (Kd) lower than 0.025 L/kg.

It is recommended that an in-situ infiltration tracertest is considered for simultaneously determining the longitudinal and transverse dispersion coefficients in soil. Analytical solutions have been derived for two-dimensional advective-dispersive transport in a radial geometry in the literature which can be used for interpreting the result of such a tracertest. However, these solutions were developed for a transport domain with an unbounded-radial extent and an infinite thickness of vadose zone which might not be realistically manifested in the actual solute transport during a field infiltration tracertest. Especially, the assumption of infinite thickness of vadose zone should be invalid for infiltration tracertests conducted in soil with a shallow groundwater table. This paper describes an analytical model for interpreting the results of an infiltration tracertest based on improving the transport domain with a bounded-radial extent and a finite thickness of vadose zone. The analytical model is obtained with the successive application of appropriate integral transforms and their corresponding inverse transforms. A comparison of the newly derived analytical solution against the previous analytical solutions in which two distinct sets of radial extent and thickness of vadose zone are considered is conducted to determine the influence of the radial and exit boundary conditions on the solute transport. The results shows that both the radial and exit boundary conditions substantially affect the trailing segment of the breakthrough curves for a soil medium with large dispersion coefficients. Previous solutions derived for a transport domain with an unbounded-radial and an infinite thickness of vadose zone boundary conditions give lower concentration predictions compared with the proposed solution at late times. Moreover, the differences between two solutions are amplified when the observation positions are near the groundwater table. In addition, we compare our

The authors investigated the late-time (asymptotic) behavior of tracertest breakthrough curves (BTCs) with rate-limited mass transfer (e.g., in dual or multi-porosity systems) and found that the late-time concentration, c, is given by the simple expression: c = t{sub ad} (c{sub 0}g {minus} m{sub 0}{partial_derivative}g/{partial_derivative}t), for t >> t{sub ad} and t{sub a} >> t{sub ad} where t{sub ad} is the advection time, c{sub 0} is the initial concentration in the medium, m{sub 0} is the 0th moment of the injection pulse; and t{sub a} is the mean residence time in the immobile domain (i.e., the characteristic mass transfer time). The function g is proportional to the residence time distribution in the immobile domain, the authors tabulate g for many geometries, including several distributed (multirate) models of mass transfer. Using this expression they examine the behavior of late-time concentration for a number of mass transfer models. One key results is that if rate-limited mass transfer causes the BTC to behave as a power-law at late-time (i.e., c {approximately} t{sup {minus}k}), then the underlying density function of rate coefficients must also be a power-law with the form a{sup k{minus}}, as a {r_arrow}0. This is true for both density functions of first-order and diffusion rate coefficients. BTCs with k < 3 persisting to the end of the experiment indicate a mean residence time longer than the experiment and possibly infinite, and also suggest an effective rate coefficient that is either undefined or changes as a function of observation time. They apply their analysis to breakthrough curves from Single-Well Injection-Withdrawal tests at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, New Mexico.

What method is appropriate to investigate an aquifer when there is only one well available? A single well "push-pull" tracertest (PP Test) may be a suitable method in order to characterize an aquifer and to obtain information about the hydraulic and chemical properties when only one well is available for the investigations. In a PP test, a test solution that contains a known amount of solutes and a conservative tracer is injected into the aquifer ("push") and extracted afterwards ("pull"). Optionally, the test solution is flushed out of the well and the casing with untreated test solution with a so called "chaser" before being extracted. Also between the injection and the extraction phase a drifting time may be included. The breakthrough of the tracer during the extraction phase is measured and used for analyses and interpretation. In the last three years, several PP Test campaigns were conducted at two different test sites in Japan (Hebig et al. 2011, Zeilfelder et al. 2012). The aim was to investigate the applicability of the PP Test method in different geological settings and in different types of aquifers. The latest field campaign thus focussed on the question how variations of the setup are influencing the breakthrough curve of the PP Test in order to develop and enhance this method. Also the standardization of the PP Test was an aim of this study. During the campaign, a total of seven PP Tests were performed, while only single aspects of the setup were varied from test to test. The tests differed in injection and extraction rate, in the salinity of the injected test solution and in the use of a chaser solution. The general shapes of the breakthrough curves were similar and conclusions about the repeatability of the PP Test could be drawn. However, a sharp anomaly was observed in the breakthrough curve of one specific setup type. By repeating this PP test under the same boundary conditions, we were able to recreate the anomaly and could exclude any technical

Tracertests are conducted to ascertain solute transport parameters of a single rock feature over a 5-m transport pathway. Two different conceptualizations of double-porosity solute transport provide estimates of the tracer breakthrough curves. One of the conceptualizations (single-rate) employs a single effective diffusion coefficient in a matrix with infinite penetration depth. However, the tracer retention between different flow paths can vary as the ratio of flow-wetted surface to flow rate differs between the path lines. The other conceptualization (multirate) employs a continuous distribution of multiple diffusion rate coefficients in a matrix with variable, yet finite, capacity. Application of these two models with the parameters estimated on the tracertest breakthrough curves produces transport results that differ by orders of magnitude in peak concentration and time to peak concentration at the performance assessment (PA) time and length scales (100,000 years and 1,000 m). These differences are examined by calculating the time limits for the diffusive capacity to act as an infinite medium. These limits are compared across both conceptual models and also against characteristic times for diffusion at both the tracertest and PA scales. Additionally, the differences between the models are examined by re-estimating parameters for the multirate model from the traditional double-porosity model results at the PA scale. Results indicate that for each model the amount of the diffusive capacity that acts as an infinite medium over the specified time scale explains the differences between the model results and that tracertests alone cannot provide reliable estimates of transport parameters for the PA scale. Results of Monte Carlo runs of the transport models with varying travel times and path lengths show consistent results between models and suggest that the variation in flow-wetted surface to flow rate along path lines is insignificant relative to variability in

We developed an autonomous electromagnetic flowmeter as part of a cross-hole hydrogeologic experiment using subseafloor borehole observatories (CORKs) that penetrate into the volcanic ocean crust. The cylindrical flowmeter is adapted from a conventional industrial tool and hardened for use at water depths up to 6000 m. In addition, the electronics were modified with a new power controller, and a data logger and communication board was added to enable data storage and long-term, autonomous use for up to eight years. The flowmeter generates a magnetic field and measures a voltage gradient that is created across the orifice as water moves through it. This kind of tool is ideally suited for use in the deep sea, particularly for measuring hydrothermal fluids emanating from the ocean crust, because it requires no moving parts, places no obstructions along the flow path, gives total flow volume as well as instantaneous flow rate, and is highly accurate across a large dynamic range, including bi-directional flow. This flowmeter was deployed on a CORK wellhead using an adapter and ring clamp system located above a 4-inch ball valve. The ball valve can be opened to permit flow (from an overpressured formation) out of the CORK and into the overlying ocean. A polyvinyl chloride "chimney" positioned vertically above the flowmeter is instrumented with autonomous temperature loggers to permit an additional estimate of fluid flow rates with time, based on heat loss during fluid ascent, and to facilitate fluid sampling. Calibration of the new flowmeter was completed in two stages: tank testing using a pump at flow rates of 0.5 to 1.2 L/s, and by lowering the flowmeter on a wireline at sea at rates equivalent to 0.5 to 5.2 L/s. A cross plot of apparent and reference flow rates obtained during calibration indicates a highly linear instrument response. Comparison of instantaneous (once per minute) and integrated (total flow) data collected during calibration indicates good agreement

It is primordial to understand the sensibility of a catchment or a spring against contamination to secure a sustainable water resource management in karst aquifers. Artificial tracertests have proven to be excellent tools for the simulation of contaminant transport within an aquifer before its arrival at a karst spring as they provide information about transit times, dispersivities and therefore insights into the vulnerability of a water body against contamination (Geyer et al. 2007). For this purpose, extensive analysis of artificial tracertests was undertaken in the following work, in order to acquire conservative transport parameters along fast and slow pathways in a mature karst system under various flow conditions. In the framework of the project "Protection of Jeita Spring" (BGR), about 30 tracertests were conducted on the catchment area of the Jeita spring in Lebanon (Q= 1 to 20 m3/s) under various flow conditions and with different injection points (dolines, sinkholes, subsurface, and underground channel). Tracer breakthrough curves (TBC) observed at karst springs and in the conduit system were analyzed using the two-region non-equilibrium approach (2NREM) (Toride & van Genuchten 1999). The approach accounts for the skewness in the TBCs long tailings, which cannot be described with one dimensional advective-dispersive transport models (Geyer et al. 2007). Relationships between the modeling parameters estimated from the TBC were established under various flow periods. Rating curves for velocity and discharge show that the flow velocity increases with spring discharge. The calibrated portion of the immobile region in the conduit system is relatively low. Estimated longitudinal dispersivities in the conduit system range between 7 and 10 m in high flow periods and decreases linearly with increasing flow. In low flow periods, this relationship doesn't hold true as longitudinal dispersivities range randomly between 4 and 7 m. The longitudinal dispersivity

Interfacial partitioning tracertests (IPTT) are one method available for measuring air-water interfacial area (A_ia). The method has been shown to provide uncertain measurements that are influenced by surfactant-enhanced drainage. The purpose of this work is to test a revised method that minimizes formation of interfacial-tension gradients in order to prevent surfactant-induced drainage. The method employs a dual-surfactant injection under steady unsaturated-flow conditions. Sodium dodecylbezene sulfonate (SDBS) and pentafluorobenzoic acid (PFBA) were used as the partitioning and nonreactive tracers, respectively. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) was used as the surfactant in the background solution. Three types of porous media were used for the study: a sandy soil, a well-sorted sand, and glass beads. Water saturation was monitored gravimetrically during the experiments. The results obtained with the revised method are compared to those obtained with the standard IPTT method.

In 1977, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) conducted two tracertests at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) using tritiated water to study the relative importance of bedding-plane openings on shallow groundwater flow. Through a cooperative agreement between the USGS and the US Department of Energy (DOE), the data were made available to researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), who organized the data into a data management format. The results of these groundwater tracertests have been compiled into a collection of four SAS data sets. This report documents these SAS data sets, including their structure, methodology, and content. The SAS data sets include information on precipitation, tritium, water levels, and well construction for wells at or near ORNL radioactive waste burial grounds 4, 5, and 6.

Tracer gases emplaced in or near the detonation cavity of the 1-kiloton NonProliferation Event required 1.5 and 13.5 months for sulfur hexaflouride and helium-3, respectively, to reach the surface of Rainier Mesa from an emplacement depth of 400 meters. The sites that first produced tracer gases are those located in known faults and fractures. Numerical modeling suggests that transport to the surface is accomplished within this time frame through atmospheric pumping along high permeability pathways such as fractures. The difference in travel time between the two tracers is due to differences in gas diffusivity and can also be explained by our numerical modeling. 2 refs, 3 figs

We tested three models of mixing between old interbasin groundwater flow (IGF) and young, locally derived groundwater in a lowland rain forest in Costa Rica using a large suite of environmental tracers. We focus on the young fraction of water using the transient tracers CFC-11, CFC-12, CFC-113, SF6, 3H, and bomb 14C. We measured 3He, but 3H/3He dating is generally problematic due to the presence of mantle 3He. Because of their unique concentration histories in the atmosphere, combinations of transient tracers are sensitive not only to subsurface travel times but also to mixing between waters having different travel times. Samples fall into three distinct categories: (1) young waters that plot along a piston flow line, (2) old samples that have near-zero concentrations of the transient tracers, and (3) mixtures of 1 and 2. We have modeled the concentrations of the transient tracers using (1) a binary mixing model (BMM) of old and young water with the young fraction transported via piston flow, (2) an exponential mixing model (EMM) with a distribution of groundwater travel times characterized by a mean value, and (3) an exponential mixing model for the young fraction followed by binary mixing with an old fraction (EMM/BMM). In spite of the mathematical differences in the mixing models, they all lead to a similar conceptual model of young (0 to 10 year) groundwater that is locally derived mixing with old (>1000 years) groundwater that is recharged beyond the surface water boundary of the system.

We tested three models of mixing between old interbasin groundwater flow (IGF) and young, locally derived groundwater in a lowland rain forest in Costa Rica using a large suite of environmental tracers. We focus on the young fraction of water using the transient tracers CFC-11, CFC-12, CFC-113, SF6, 3H, and bomb 14C. We measured 3He, but 3H/3He dating is generally problematic due to the presence of mantle 3He. Because of their unique concentration histories in the atmosphere, combinations of transient tracers are sensitive not only to subsurface travel times but also to mixing between waters having different travel times. Samples fall into three distinct categories: (1) young waters that plot along a piston flow line, (2) old samples that have near-zero concentrations of the transient tracers, and (3) mixtures of 1 and 2. We have modeled the concentrations of the transient tracers using (1) a binary mixing model (BMM) of old and young water with the young fraction transported via piston flow, (2) an exponential mixing model (EMM) with a distribution of groundwater travel times characterized by a mean value, and (3) an exponential mixing model for the young fraction followed by binary mixing with an old fraction (EMM/BMM). In spite of the mathematical differences in the mixing models, they all lead to a similar conceptual model of young (0 to 10 year) groundwater that is locally derived mixing with old (>1000 years) groundwater that is recharged beyond the surface water boundary of the system.

Two multitracer tests performed in one of the major cross-fault zones of the Lange Bramke basin (Harz Mountains, Germany) confirm the dominant role of the fault zone in groundwater flow and solute transport. Tracers having different coefficients of molecular diffusion (deuterium, bromide, uranine, and eosine) yielded breakthrough curves that can only be explained by a model that couples the advective-dispersive transport in the fractures with the molecular diffusion exchange in the matrix. For the scale of the tests (maximum distance of 225m), an approximation was used in which the influence of adjacent fractures is neglected. That model yielded nearly the same rock and transport parameters for each tracer, which means that the single-fracture approximation is acceptable and that matrix diffusion plays an important role. The hydraulic conductivity of the fault zone obtained from the tracertests is about 1.5×10-2m/s, whereas the regional hydraulic conductivity of the fractured rock mass is about 3×10-7m/s, as estimated from the tritium age and the matrix porosity of about 2%. These values show that the hydraulic conductivity along the fault is several orders of magnitude larger than that of the remaining fractured part of the aquifer, which confirms the dominant role of the fault zones as collectors of water and conductors of fast flow. Résumé Deux multitraçages ont été réalisés dans l'une des zones principales de failles du bassin de Lange Bramke (massif du Harz, Allemagne); les résultats confirment le rôle prédominant de la zone de failles pour l'écoulement souterrain et le transport de soluté. Les traceurs, possédant des coefficients de diffusion différents (deutérium, bromure, uranine et éosine), ont fourni des courbes de restitution qui ne peuvent être expliquées que par un modèle qui associe un transport advectif-dispersif dans les fractures à un échange par diffusion moléculaire dans la matrice. A l'échelle des expériences (distance

Two multitracer tests performed in one of the major cross-fault zones of the Lange Bramke basin (Harz Mountains, Germany) confirm the dominant role of the fault zone in groundwater flow and solute transport. Tracers having different coefficients of molecular diffusion (deuterium, bromide, uranine, and eosine) yielded breakthrough curves that can only be explained by a model that couples the advective-dispersive transport in the fractures with the molecular diffusion exchange in the matrix. For the scale of the tests (maximum distance of 225m), an approximation was used in which the influence of adjacent fractures is neglected. That model yielded nearly the same rock and transport parameters for each tracer, which means that the single-fracture approximation is acceptable and that matrix diffusion plays an important role. The hydraulic conductivity of the fault zone obtained from the tracertests is about 1.5×10-2m/s, whereas the regional hydraulic conductivity of the fractured rock mass is about 3×10-7m/s, as estimated from the tritium age and the matrix porosity of about 2%. These values show that the hydraulic conductivity along the fault is several orders of magnitude larger than that of the remaining fractured part of the aquifer, which confirms the dominant role of the fault zones as collectors of water and conductors of fast flow. Résumé Deux multitraçages ont été réalisés dans l'une des zones principales de failles du bassin de Lange Bramke (massif du Harz, Allemagne); les résultats confirment le rôle prédominant de la zone de failles pour l'écoulement souterrain et le transport de soluté. Les traceurs, possédant des coefficients de diffusion différents (deutérium, bromure, uranine et éosine), ont fourni des courbes de restitution qui ne peuvent être expliquées que par un modèle qui associe un transport advectif-dispersif dans les fractures à un échange par diffusion moléculaire dans la matrice. A l'échelle des expériences (distance

Residual CO2 saturation is a critically important parameter in CO2 storage as it can have a large impact on the available secure storage volume and post-injection CO2 migration. A suite of single-well tests to measure residual trapping was conducted at the Otway test site in Victoria, Australia during 2011. One or more of these tests could be conducted at a prospective CO2 storage site before large-scale injection. The test involved injection of 150 tonnes of pure carbon dioxide followed by 454 tonnes of CO2-saturated formation water to drive the carbon dioxide to residual saturation. This work presents a brief overview of the full test sequence, followed by the analysis and interpretation of the tests using noble gas tracers. Prior to CO2 injection krypton (Kr) and xenon (Xe) tracers were injected and back-produced to characterise the aquifer under single-phase conditions. After CO2 had been driven to residual the two tracers were injected and produced again. The noble gases act as non-partitioning aqueous-phase tracers in the undisturbed aquifer and as partitioning tracers in the presence of residual CO2. To estimate residual saturation from the tracertest data a one-dimensional radial model of the near-well region is used. In the model there are only two independent parameters: the apparent dispersivity of each tracer and the residual CO2 saturation. Independent analysis of the Kr and Xe tracer production curves gives the same estimate of residual saturation to within the accuracy of the method. Furthermore the residual from the noble gas tracertests is consistent with other measurements in the sequence of tests.

Push-pull (single-well-injection-withdrawal) tracertests are widely used as an economical means of characterizing field-scale solute transport properties such as sorption and dispersion. Typically, these are analyzed by means of analytic solutions that assume transport obeys the radial advection-dispersion equation. We revisit this approach as: (1) Recognition of the ubiquity of anomalous transport and its impact on contaminant remediation necessitates the use of new methods to characterize it, and (2) Improved computational power and numerical methods have rendered reliance on analytical solutions obsolete. Here, we present a technique for characterizing diffusion-driven anomalous transport (i.e., anomalous transport driven by a "trapping" process whose trapping and release statistics are independent of the groundwater flow velocity). Examples include diffusion into low permeability zones, kinetic sorption, and matrix diffusion. Using field observations, we simultaneously calibrate an exponential probability distribution for time spent on a single sojourn in the mobile domain and a truncated power law probability distribution for time spent on a single sojourn in the immobile domain via a stochastic global optimization technique. The calibrated distributions, being independent of the flow regime, are applicable to the same domain under any flow conditions, including linear flow. In the context of the continuous time random walk (CTRW), one may simply define a transition to represent a single trap-and-release cycle, and directly compute the spatiotemporal transition distribution that defines the CTRW from the two calibrated distributions and the local seepage velocity (so that existing CTRW transport theory applies). A test of our methodology against a push-pull test from the MADE site demonstrated fitting performance comparable to that of a 3-D MODFLOW/MT3DMS model with a variety of hydraulic conductivity zones and explicit treatment of mobile-immobile mass

Over 200 water samples including rain water, surface water and groundwater from August 2012 to June 2015 in the Tatun volcano group were collected and analyzed. The results show that the isotope composition of surface water are enriched in winter (δ18O=-6.03 ‰, δD= -27.27‰) and depleted in summer (δ18O= -6.12‰, δD=-29.25‰), indicate that the water mass comes from different sources in summer and winter in the region, respectively. The seasonal variations of groundwaters (δ18O=-5.9 ‰, δD= -28.4‰) are significant different from that of surface water. This indicates that it takes a significant period of time to have the rain water mixed with groundwater. The main recharge season of groundwater in the northern Cising Mountain is winter while summer is the main recharge season of groundwater in the south of the mountain. Inter-well natural-gradient tracertests were conducted in the south and north of Cising Mountain to identify shallow groundwater flow path, respectively. Different tracer breakthrough curves observed from north and south indicate different transport mechanisms may be involved. It took 286 hours for tracer to transport through 860m arriving at Well-17 in the south while 9 hours for tracer to flow through 690m to arrive at Well-30 in the north. Based on borehole properties, we suggest that the groundwater transport is mainly controlled by the formation fractures in the south of Cising Mountain with slower velocity while the groundwater in the north region is dominated by the flow along the boundaries of lava layers with faster velocity. Integrated the stable isotope compositions with tracertests, we concluded that the major groundwater recharge to the south Cising Mountain region comes from the Caigongkeng Mountain. On the other hand, the groundwater recharge for the north Cising Mountain region primary comes from the Eastern Cising Mountain with minor contribution from the Caigongkeng Mountain. Keywords: stable isotope, groundwater

Single-well injection-withdrawal (SWIW) tracertests involve injection of traced fluid and subsequent tracer recovery from the same well, usually with some quiescent time between the injection and withdrawal periods. SWIW are insensitive to variations in advective processes that arise from formation heterogeneities, because upon withdrawal, fluid parcels tend to retrace the paths taken during injection. However, SWIW are sensitive to diffusive processes, such as diffusive exchange of conservative or reactive solutes between fractures and rock matrix. This paper focuses on SWIW tests in which temperature itself is used as a tracer. Numerical simulations demonstrate the sensitivity of temperature returns to fracture-matrix interaction. We consider thermal SWIW response to the two primary reservoir improvements targeted with stimulation, (1) making additional fractures accessible to injected fluids, and (2) increasing the aperture and permeability of pre-existing fractures. It is found that temperature returns in SWIW tests are insensitive to (2), while providing a strong signal of more rapid temperature recovery during the withdrawal phase for (1).

A natural-gradient ground-water tracertest was designed and conducted in a tidal freshwater wetland at West Branch Canal Creek, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. The objectives of the test were to characterize solute transport at the site, obtain data to more accurately determine the ground-water velocity in the upper wetland sediments, and to compare a conservative, ionic tracer (bromide) to a volatile tracer (sulfur hexafluoride) to ascertain whether volatilization could be an important process in attenuating volatile organic compounds in the ground water. The tracertest was conducted within the upper peat unit of a layer of wetland sediments that also includes a lower clayey unit; the combined layer overlies an aquifer. The area selected for the test was thought to have an above-average rate of ground-water discharge based on ground-water head distributions and near-surface detections of volatile organic compounds measured in previous studies. Because ground-water velocities in the wetland sediments were expected to be slow compared to the underlying aquifer, the test was designed to be conducted on a small scale. Ninety-seven ?-inch-diameter inverted-screen stainless-steel piezometers were installed in a cylindrical array within approximately 25 cubic feet (2.3 cubic meters) of wetland sediments, in an area with a vertically upward hydraulic gradient. Fluorescein dye was used to qualitatively evaluate the hydrologic integrity of the tracer array before the start of the tracertest, including verifying the absence of hydraulic short-circuiting due to nonnatural vertical conduits potentially created during piezometer installation. Bromide and sulfur hexafluoride tracers (0.139 liter of solution containing 100,000 milligrams per liter of bromide ion and 23.3 milligrams per liter of sulfur hexafluoride) were co-injected and monitored to generate a dataset that could be used to evaluate solute transport in three dimensions. Piezometers were sampled 2 to 15 times

Denitrification was measured within a nitrate-contaminated aquifer on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, using natural gradient tracertests with 15N nitrate. The aquifer contained zones of relatively high concentrations of nitrite (up to 77 ??M) and nitrous oxide (up to 143 ??M) and has been the site of previous studies examining ground water denitrification using the acetylene block technique. Small-scale (15-24 m travel distance) tracertests were conducted by injecting 15N nitrate and bromide as tracers into a depth interval that contained nitrate, nitrite, nitrous oxide, and excess nitrogen gas. The timing of the bromide breakthrough curves at down-gradient wells matched peaks in 15N abundance above background for nitrate, nitrite, nitrous oxide, and nitrogen gas after more than 40 days of travel. Results were simulated with a one-dimensional transport model using linked reaction kinetics for the individual steps of the denitrification reaction pathway. It was necessary to include within the model spatial variations in background concentrations of all nitrogen oxide species. The model indicated that nitrite production (0.036-0.047 ??mol N (L aquifer)-1 d -1) was faster than the subsequent denitrification steps (0.013-0.016 ??mol N (L aquifer)-1 d-1 for nitrous oxide and 0.013-0.020 ??mol N (L aquifer)-1 d-1 for nitrogen gas) and that the total rate of reaction was slower than indicated by both acetylene block tracertests and laboratory incubations. The rate of nitrate removal by denitrification was much slower than the rate of transport, indicating that nitrate would migrate several kilometers down-gradient before being completely consumed.

A series of single-well injection-withdrawal (SWIW) and two-well convergent-flow (TWCF) tracertests were conducted in the Culebra dolomite at the WIPP site in late 1995 and early 1996. Modeling analyses over the past year have focused on reproducing the observed mass-recovery curves and understanding the basic physical processes controlling tracer transport in SWIW and TWCF tests. To date, specific modeling efforts have focused on five SWIW tests and one TWCF pathway at each of two different locations (H-11 and H-19 hydropads). An inverse parameter-estimation procedure was implemented to model the SWIW and TWCF tests with both traditional and multirate double-porosity formulations. The traditional model assumes a single diffusion rate while the multirate model uses a first-order approximation to model a continuous distribution of diffusion coefficients. Conceptually, the multirate model represents variable matrix block sizes within the Culebra as observed in geologic investigations and also variability in diffusion rates within the matrix blocks as observed with X-ray imaging in the laboratory. Single-rate double-porosity models cannot provide an adequate match to the SWIW data. Multirate double-porosity models provide excellent fits to all five SWIW mass-recovery curves. Models of the TWCF tests show that, at one location, the tracertest can be modeled with both single-rate and multirate double-porosity models. At the other location, only the multi-rate double-porosity model is capable of explaining the test results.

Application of cross-hole radar tomographic methods for geophysical imaging and monitoring of field-scale vegetable oil emulsion (VOE) biostimulation in saturated unconsolidated sediments is investigated through a combination of petrophysical modeling, laboratory-scale experiments, synthetic forward and inverse modeling, and field demonstration at a VOE biostimulation site at Fridley, Minnesota. The complex refractive index model (CRIM) model and petrophysical relationships between electromagnetic (EM) wave attenuation, Archie's law, and pore-fluid specific conductance were used to (1) predict VOE dielectric permittivity as a function of emulsion vegetable-oil fraction; (2) predict bulk dielectric permittivity changes resulting from VOE injection into saturated sand; and (3) develop methods to predict VOE saturation and changes in ground water total-dissolved-solids (TDS) based on measurement of radar slowness- and attenuation-differences. The results illustrate pixel-based tomographic inversion limitations including (1) poor target resolution; (2) overestimation of target horizontal extent; (3) anomaly blurring and streaking; and (4) a general underestimation of anomaly magnitude. In contrast, using OBI, the vertical and horizontal extent and shape of the target anomalies were accurately reproduced and anomaly magnitude errors were small, consistent with the data error. In geologic environments where VOE injection is controlled by horizontally stratified sediments, OBI slowness-difference tomograms can be analyzed to estimate VOE saturation and interpreted with greater confidence than pixel-based tomograms. Results of cross-hole radar monitoring of VOE injection demonstrate for the first time that radar-imaging methods can be used as a field scale remote sensing method for imaging and monitoring VOE biostimulation. Further more, the field study results indicate application of an appropriate inversion approach such as OBI can produce tomograms that (1) delineate

A main purpose of groundwater inverse modeling lies in estimating the hydraulic conductivity field of an aquifer. Traditionally, hydraulic head measurements, possibly obtained in tomographic setups, are used as data. Because the groundwater flow equation is diffusive, many pumping and observation wells would be necessary to obtain a high resolution of hydraulic conductivity, which is typically not possible. We suggest performing heat tracertests using the same already installed pumping wells and thermometers in observation planes to amend the hydraulic head data set by the arrival times of the heat signals. For each tomographic combinations of wells, we recommend installing an outer pair of pumping wells, generating artificial ambient flow, and an inner well pair in which the tests are performed. We jointly invert heads and thermal arrival times in 3-D by the quasi-linear geostatistical approach using an efficiently parallelized code running on a mid-range cluster. In the present study, we evaluate the value of heat tracer versus head data in a synthetic test case, where the estimated fields can be compared to the synthetic truth. Because the sensitivity patterns of the thermal arrival times differ from those of head measurements, the resolved variance in the estimated field is 6 to 10 times higher in the joint inversion in comparison to inverting head data only. Also, in contrast to head measurements, reversing the flow field and repeating the heat-tracertest improves the estimate in terms of reducing the estimation variance of the estimate. Based on the synthetic test case, we recommend performing the tests in four principal directions, requiring in total eight pumping wells and four intersecting observation planes for heads and temperature in each direction.

Laboratory and field evaluations were conducted to determine the suitability of employing a fluorescent tracer in conjunction with video imaging analysis to measure dermal exposure during pesticide applications. The Fluorescent Whitening Agent 4-methyl-7-diethylaminocoumarin and the organophosphate malathion were highly correlated (r = .985) when sprayed under controlled conditions. Deposition levels during field studies were correlated similarly (r = .942); however, variability in deposition ratios requires that field sampling be conducted to determine the ratio for a particular application. Penetration of the two compounds through cotton/polyester workshirt material demonstrated a high correlation (r = .979), whereas penetration of cotton/polyester coverall material was more variable (r = .834). The slopes of the regression lines for the two materials were not significantly different. The ratio of pesticide and tracer recovered from targets was consistently higher than the initial tank ratio due to differences in solubility and mixing. PMID:3799477

A Laplace transform solution was obtained for the injection of a tracer in a well situated in a homogeneous aquifer where steady, horizontal, radially convergent flow has been established due to pumping at a second well. The standard advection-dispersion equation for mass transfer was used as the controlling equation. For boundary conditions, mass balances that account for mixing of the tracer with the fluid residing in the injection and pumping wells were used. The derived solution, which can be adapted for either resident or flux-averaged concentration, is of practical use only for the pumped well. This problem is of interest because it is easily applied to field determination of aquifer dispersivity and effective porosity. Breakthrough curves were obtained by numerical inversion of the Laplace transform solution. -from Author

Bromide and boron were used as tracers during an injection experiment conducted at an artificial recharge facility near Stanton, Texas. The Ogallala aquifer at the Stanton site represents a heterogeneous alluvial environment and provides the opportunity to report scale dependent dispersivities at observation distances of 2 to 15 m in this setting. Values of longitudinal dispersivities are compared with other published values. Water samples were collected at selected depths both from piezometers and from fully screened observation wells at radii of 2, 5, 10 and 15 m. An exact analytical solution is used to simulate the concentration breakthrough curves and estimate longitudinal dispersivities and velocity parameters. Greater confidence can be placed on these data because the estimated parameters are error bounded using the bootstrap method. The non-conservative behavior of boron transport in clay rich sections of the aquifer were quantified with distribution coefficients by using bromide as a conservative reference tracer.

Petroleum liquids, referred to as light non-aqueous phase liquids (LNAPLs), are commonly found beneath petroleum facilities. Concerns with LNAPLs include migration into clean soils, migration beyond property boundaries, and discharges to surface water. Single-well tracer dilution techniques were used to measure LNAPL fluxes through 50 wells at 7 field sites. A hydrophobic tracer was mixed into LNAPL in a well. Intensities of fluorescence associated with the tracer were measured over time using a spectrometer and a fiber optic cable. LNAPL fluxes were estimated using observed changes in the tracer concentrations over time. Measured LNAPL fluxes range from 0.006 to 2.6 m/year with a mean and median of 0.15 and 0.064 m/year, respectively. Measured LNAPL fluxes are two to four orders of magnitude smaller than a common groundwater flux of 30 m/year. Relationships between LNAPL fluxes and possible governing parameters were evaluated. Observed LNAPL fluxes are largely independent of LNAPL thickness in wells. Natural losses of LNAPL through dissolution, evaporation, and subsequent biodegradation, were estimated using a simple mass balance, measured LNAPL fluxes in wells, and an assumed stable LNAPL extent. The mean and median of the calculated loss rates were found to be 24.0 and 5.0 m3/ha/year, respectively. Mean and median losses are similar to values reported by others. Coupling observed LNAPL fluxes to observed rates of natural LNAPL depletion suggests that natural losses of LNAPL may be an important parameter controlling the overall extent of LNAPL bodies. PMID:23289131

A simulation study of two-well injection-withdrawal tracertests in stratified granular aquifers at two widely separated sites is presented. The first site is located near the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories in Canada, and the second site is located in Mobile, Alabama. Field data and test conditions at these sites are substantially different in terms of vertical distributions of hydraulic conductivity, well spacings, flow rates, test durations, and tracer travel distances. Furthermore, the test at the Chalk River site was conducted in a recirculating mode, whereas the test at the Mobile site was conducted in a nonrecirculating mode. Simulations of these tests were performed in three dimensions using the curvilinear finite element model developed in the previous paper of this series. The simulations incorporated measured vertical variations in relative hydraulic conductivity and local dispersivity values that are small fractions (between 1/1000 and 1/100) of the spacing between the injection and the withdrawal wells. The local dispersivities are used to account for local hydrodynamic dispersion and are chosen independently so that they are not affected by the scales of the tests. Simulation results obtained from the model are presented. Interpretation of these results is made in conjunction with measured breakthrough curves at the withdrawal well and multilevel observation wells. For the Chalk River site, predicted and measured breakthrough curves at the withdrawal well are in good agreement over the earlier part of the test duration. Deviation of the field data from the model prediction occurs over the second part, where the predicted breakthrough curves show a declining trend but the field data plot does not. For the Mobile site, predicted and measured breakthrough curves at the withdrawal well show similar trends throughout the entire test duration and are in good agreement overall. Model predictions of the effect of hydraulic conductivity stratification on

The Tam Duong karst area in NW Vietnam is among the poorest and remotest regions in the country. The local population largely depends on water from two main karst springs. Due to agricultural activity and untreated domestic wastewaters, the spring water is often microbiologically contaminated. In order to provide a scientific basis for groundwater protection in the area, different field methods have been applied including hydrogeological framework investigations, tracertests, and hydrochemical and microbiological sampling and analyses. All methods had to be adapted to the conditions of a poor and remote area. These adaptations included, amongst other measures, the use of a portable microbiological water_testing kit and the involvement of the local population in the sampling campaign. The tracertests showed simple and direct connections between two important swallow holes and the two main springs, and made it possible to determine the linear groundwater flow velocities, which are extremely high (up to 875 m/h). The hydrochemical and microbiological data confirmed the strong impact of the streams sinking into the swallow holes on the spring water quality. Future groundwater source protection strategies should consequently focus on the reduction of polluting activities near the sinking streams and within their catchment areas.

A complex fracture model employing two populations for diffusion and sorption is proposed to analyze three representative single-well injection-withdrawal (SWIW) tracertests from Forsmark and Laxemar, the two sites under investigation by the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB). One population represents the semi-infinite rock matrix and the other represents finite blocks that can become saturated, thereafter accepting no further diffusion or sorption. The diffusion and sorption parameters of the models are inferred by matching tracer breakthrough curves (BTCs). Three tracers are simultaneously injected, uranine (Ur), which is conservative, and rubidium (Rb) and cesium (Cs), which are non-conservative. For non-sorbing tracer uranine, the finite blocks become saturated with test duration of the order of 10 hours, and both the finite and the semi-infinite populations play a distinct role in controlling BTCs. For sorbing tracers Rb and Cs, finite blocks do not saturate, but act essentially as semi-infinite, and thus BTC behavior is comparable to that obtained for a model containing only a semi-infinite rock matrix. The ability to obtain good matches to BTCs for both sorbing and non-sorbing tracers for these three different SWIW data sets demonstrates that the two-population complex fracture model may be a useful conceptual model to analyze all SWIW tracertests in fractured rock, and perhaps also usual multiwell tracertests. One of the two populations should be semi-infinite rock matrix and the other finite blocks that can saturate. The latter can represent either rock blocks or gouge within the fracture, a fracture skin zone, or stagnation zones.

Partitioning interwell tracertest (PITT) is a method to quantify and qualify a contaminated site with NAPLs through a degree of retardation of partitioning tracers compared to a conservative one. Although PITT is known to be a more effective method to measure the saturation of spatially-distributed NAPL contaminant than the point investigation method, the saturation estimation from PITT is reported to be underestimated due to various factors including heterogeneity of the media, adsorption, source zone NAPL architecture, and long tailing in breakthrough curves of partitioning tracers. Analytical description of PITT assumes that the injection-pumping well pair is on the line of ambient groundwater flow direction, but the test-well pair could easily be off the line in the field site, which could be another erroneous factor in analyzing PITT data. The purpose of this work is to study the influence of the angle of the test-well pair to ambient groundwater flow direction based on the result from PITT. The experiments were conducted in a small-scale 3D sandbox with dimensions of 0.5 m × 0.4 m × 0.15 m (LWH) of stainless steel. The surface is covered and sealed with a plexiglass plate to make the physical model a confined aquifer. Eight full-screened wells of Teflon material were installed along the perimeter of a 50 mm circle with 45 degree intervals in the middle of the physical model. Both ends of the sand box are connected to constant head reservoirs. The physical model was wet-packed with sieved and washed sand. Trichloroethylene (TCE) and bromide were used as the contaminant and the conservative tracer, respectively. Hexanol, 2,4-dimethyl-3-pentanol and 6-methyl-2-heptanol were used as partitioning tracers. Before the injection of TCE, a PITT was conducted to measure adsorption coefficient of partitioning tracers to the sand material. TCE of 4.5 mL, dyed with Sudan IV, was injected into the inner part of the circle of the wells. PITTs using the test-well pair

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the vulnerability after point source contamination and characterize water circulations in volcanic flows located in the Argnat basin volcanic system (Chaîne des Puys, French Massif Central) using a tracertest performed by injecting a iodide solution. The analysis of breakthrough curves allowed the hydrodispersive characteristics of the massive lava flows to be determined. Large Peclet numbers indicated a dominant advective transport. The multimodal feature of breakthrough curves combined with high values of mean velocity and low longitudinal dispersion coefficients indicated thatwater flows in an environment analogous to a fissure system, and only slightly interacts with a low porosity matrix (ne < 1%). Combining this information with lava flow stratigraphy provided by several drillings allowed a conceptual scheme of potential contaminant behaviour to be designed. Although lava flows are vulnerable to point source pollution due to the rapid transfer of water within fractures, the saturated scoriaceous layers located between massive rocks should suffice to strongly buffer the transit of pollution through dilution and longer transit times. This was consistent with the low recovery rate of the presented tracertest.

The prediction of transport patterns in fractured media is a challenging task. Different transport mechanisms are generally contributing: dispersion at fracture scale related to aperture variability, dispersion at network scale due to transport in different flowpaths and matrix diffusion. It is however difficult to know which mechanism is dominant. In this study we test the interest of heat tracertests for providing new constraints on transport in fractured media by interpreting three push-pull tests of different duration. A series of heat and solute push-pull tracertest with Dirac-type injection was conducted in fractured aquifer of Ploemeur, France. The comparison of solute and heat breakthrough curves shows that due to thermal loss to the rock matrix temperature recovery peak arrives earlier than concentration peak. Moreover, the peak is significantly smaller for temperature recovery while it exhibits a longest tailing. Finally, we found that the recovered peak temperature decreases with scale and has a power law slope of -1 on a log-log plot. By means of flow and heat numerical model, we investigate the relevance of different conceptual models: single 'plate', 'tube' and 'ellipse' homogeneous fracture models at different scales. For all tested fracture geometries temperature breakthrough curves were found to be sensitive to fracture aperture. An 'elliptical tube' fracture model was found to provide the best fit to the data and based on this model, we were able to estimate the aperture of the fracture in the present case. Moreover, the comparison of experimental breakthrough curves and modelling results also suggests that the effective fracture aperture may increase with scale. This work emphasizes that multiple-scale push-pull thermal tests can provide valuable insights on fracture geometry and fracture aperture.

Power law tails, commonly observed in solute breakthrough curves, are notoriously difficult to measure with confidence as they typically occur at low concentrations. This leads us to ask if other signatures of anomalous transport can be sought. We develop a general stochastic transport framework and derive an asymptotic relation between the tail scaling of a breakthrough curve for a conservative tracer at a fixed downstream position and the scaling of the peak concentration of breakthrough curves as a function of downstream position, demonstrating that they provide equivalent information. We then quantify the relevant spatiotemporal scales for the emergence of this asymptotic regime, where the relationship holds, and validate our results in the context of a very simple model that represents transport in an idealized river.

A semi-analytical approximation to tracer signals is proposed for evaluating the chances of unambiguous tracertest interpretation for the CCS pilot site at Heletz (www.co2mustang.eu/Heletz.aspx), given the multiple constraints imposed upon tracertest execution at any deep geological formation regarding maximum pressure buildup admissible, fluid turnover rates, injection-fluid availability and conditioning capabilities, fluid disposal capacity, maximum test duration, tracer quantities/species available, tracer metering costs, etc. At the Ketzin site in Germany (www.co2sink.org), such constraints acted prohibitively towards conducting any tracertests prior to CO2 injection (cf. EGU2009-11625, EGU2011-2823-1). In contrast, at the Heletz site within the MUSTANG project, a particular sequence of single-well (SW) and inter-well (IW) tracertests to be conducted prior to CO2 injection (Bensabat et al. 2011, Niemi et al. 2011) is being regarded as a critical, indispensable contribution towards the goal of georeservoir characterization. An advantage of the proposed approach, expressing tracer signals U in terms of fluid volume recovery fraction f (rather than time), is its independence upon IW distance and upon fluid injection/production rates (which may be difficult to prescribe in advance). It roughly predicts conservative- and sorptive-tracer signals, fluid mixing and temperature evolution in SW and IW tests, for stratified georeservoirs whose high- and low-permeability layers have thicknesses of same magnitude order. Thus, besides the CCS context, it can be extended to a range of geothermal applications, including some aquifer-dominated systems in the Upper Rhine Rift Valley, S-German Malm/Molasse Basin, N-German Sedimentary Basin, but excluding fracture-dominated (petrothermal) systems. IW tracer signals are sensitive to storage capacity (measured by transport-effective porosities n), but suffer from ambiguity between longitudinal heterogeneity (Peclet number Pe

The contamination of large areas and correspondent aquifers often imposes to implement some recovery operations which are generally complex and very expensive. Anyway, these interventions necessarily require the preventive characterization of the aquifers to be reclaimed and in particular the knowledge of the relevant hydrodispersive parameters. The determination of these parameters requires the implementation tracertests for the specific site (Sauty JP, 1978). To reduce cost and time that such test requires tracertests on undisturbed soil samples, representative of the whole aquifer, can be performed. These laboratory tests are much less expensive and require less time, but the results are certainly less reliable than those obtained by field tests for several reasons, including the particular scale of investigation. In any case the hydrodispersive parameters values, obtained by tests carried out in laboratory, can provide useful information on the considered aquifer, allowing to carry out initial verifications on the transmission and propagation of the pollutants in the aquifer considered. For this purpose, tracertests with inlet of short time were carried out in the Soil Physics Laboratory of the Department of Soil Protection (University of Calabria), on a series of sandy soil samples with six different lengths, repeating each test with three different water flow velocities (5 m/d; 10 m/s and 15 m/d) (J. Feyen et al., 1998). The lengths of the samples taken into account are respectively 15 cm, 24 cm, 30 cm, 45 cm, 60 cm and 75 cm, while the solution used for each test was made of 100 ml of water and NaCl with a concentration of this substance corresponding to 10 g/L. For the porous medium taken into consideration a particle size analysis was carried out, resulting primarily made of sand, with total porosity equal to 0.33. Each soil sample was placed in a flow cell in which was inlet the tracer from the bottom upwards, measuring by a conductivimeter the

For risk assessment and adequate decision making regarding remediation strategies in contaminated aquifers, solute fate in the subsurface must be modeled correctly. In practical situations, hydrodynamic transport parameters are obtained by fitting procedures, that aim to mathematically reproduce solute breakthrough (BTC) observed in the field during tracertests. In recent years, several methods have been proposed (curve-types, moments, nonlocal formulations) but none of them combine the two main characteristic effects of convergent flow tracertests (which are the most used tests in the practice): the intrinsic non-stationarity of the convergent flow to a well and the ubiquitous multiscale hydraulic heterogeneity of geological formations. These two effects separately have been accounted for by a lot of methods that appear to work well. Here, we investigate both effects at the same time via numerical analysis. We focus on the influence that measurable statistical properties of the aquifers (such as the variance and the statistical geometry of correlation scales) have on the shape of BTCs measured at the pumping well during convergent flow tracertests. We built synthetic multigaussian 3D fields of heterogeneous hydraulic conductivity fields with variable statistics. A well is located in the center of the domain to reproduce a forced gradient towards it. Constant-head values are imposed on the boundaries of the domains, which have 251x251x100 cells. Injections of solutes take place by releasing particles at different distances from the well and using a random walk particle tracking scheme with constant local coefficient of dispersivity. The results show that BTCs partially display the typical anomalous behavior that has been commonly referred to as the effect of heterogeneity and connectivity (early and late arrival times of solute differ from the one predicted by local formulations). Among the most salient features, the behaviors of BTCs after the peak (the slope

The complexity of mass transfer processes between the mobile and immobile zones in geohydrologic settings and the limitations that currently exist in the characterization of contaminated sites demand the development of improved models. In this work, we present a model that describes the mass transfer in structured porous media. This model considers divergent radial advective-dispersive transport in fractures and diffusive mass transfer inside rock matrix blocks. The heterogeneous nature of fractured formations is included with the integration of various distributions of rock matrix block sizes into the transport model. Breakthrough curves generated based on the developed model are analyzed to investigate the effects of the rate of injection, dispersivity and the immobile to mobile porosity ratio on mass transfer between mobile and immobile zones. It is shown that the developed model, in conjunction with tracer data collected from a monitoring well, can be used to estimate the dispersivity and fracture intensity. Results reveal that the dispersivity is independent of the rock matrix block size distribution for dispersion-dominant transport in fractures. These findings are used to develop a methodology to characterize rock matrix block size distribution in fractured aquifers and to estimate dispersivity based on a tracertest, which will improve our decisions concerning the remediation of contaminated sites.

A cross-hole Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) study was undertaken near the center of Thessaloniki in order to detect the depth of the existing city walls in the planned route of the new city underground train. This cross-hole setup was used for a study of measurements with various electrode arrays in real urban field conditions to evaluate the resolution of the models which is produced by each array and the reliability of the models which is produced by the newly published "MOST" technique. The pole-tripole array (C2-C1P1P2) produces high resolution models, even when only borehole electrodes are used. The bipole-bipole C1C2-P1P2 array, when used for cross-hole measurements only, produces higher resolution models compared to the C1P1-C2P2 array, even with a lower signal-to-noise ratio, which can result in extremely high RMS error, when noise, systematic or not, must be faced. The models of both arrays are greatly improved by the use of surface electrodes. The pole-bipole array (C1-P1P2) is proved to be less accurate in imaging and quite unstable to the noisy urban environment and to systematic errors. Furthermore, the Model Stacking (MOST) interpretation technique leads to better results with models of greater resolution and fewer artifacts compared even with the combined data inversion. Finally, the ERT cross-hole analysis has been reliable in detecting the city walls.

Technology-relevant georeservoirs in the realm of energy production (such as: spent-radionuclide repositories, gas-storage, geothermal, as well as CCS candidate reservoirs) contain mobile and immobile fluid regions, and often also different fluid and solid phases. The lifetime of a particular reservoir (from a hydraulic, thermal, geomechanical and/or hydrogeochemical point of view) depends on the volumes and/or interface areas of some of these regions and/or phases. Mostly, their lifetime-effective values cannot be measured by geophysical and hydraulic methods. Since they essentially relate to fluid-based transport processes, attempting to measure them by tracertests is a sensible endeavour. However, in designing and dimensioning such tracertests, one should keep in mind that not every tracertest is sensitive w. r. to every fluid transport parameter. A certain complementarity exists, w. r. to parameter sensitivity, between single-well and inter-well methods, between equilibrium and kinetic exchange processes, between volume and area parameters. Mobile-fluid volumes can be measured from inter-well conservative-tracertests, whereas single-well push-pull tests are generally insensitive w. r. to mobile-fluid volumes. Immobile-fluid volumes, in single-phase systems, are rather difficult to measure, by either kind of test. Different-phase volumes can be determined from inter-well tests using partitioning tracers at equilibrium exchange between phases; whereas single-well tracer push-pull tests are rather insensitive w. r. to tracer exchange processes at equilibrium. Im-/mobile fluid, or inter-phase interface areas can be determined from single-well tracer push-pull tests relying on kinetic exchange processes between compartments or phases. Single-well tests are often believed to be more sensitive w. r. to such processes than w. r. to advective-dispersive processes, and than inter-well tests. Inter-well tests are not physically insensitive w. r. to kinetic exchange

A simple urban dispersion model is tested that is based on the Gaussian plume model and the Briggs’ urban dispersion curves. A key aspect of the model is that an initial dispersion coefficient (sigma) of 40 m is assumed to apply in the x, y, and z directions in built-up downtown areas. This initial sigma accounts for mixing in the local street canyon and/or building wakes. At short distances (i.e., when the release is in the same street canyon as the receptor and there are no obstructions in between), the initial lateral sigma is assumed to be less, 10 m. Observations from tracer experiments during the Madison Square Garden 2005 (MSG05) field study are used for model testing. MSG05 took place in a 1 km by 1 km area in Manhattan surrounding Madison Square Garden. Six different perfluorocarbon tracer (PFT) gases were released concurrently from five different locations around MSG, and concentrations in the air were observed by 20 samplers near the surface and seven samplers on building tops. There were two separate continuous 60 minute tracer release periods on each day, beginning at 9 am and at 11:30 am. Releases took place on two separate days (March 10 and 14). The samplers provided 30 minute averaged PFT concentrations from 9 am through 2 pm. This analysis focuses on the maximum 60-minute averaged PFT gas concentration at each sampler location for each PFT for each release period. Stability was assumed to be nearly neutral, because of the moderate winds and the mechanical mixing generated by the buildings. Input wind direction was the average observed building-top wind direction (285° on March 10 and 315° on March 14). Input wind speed was the average street-level observed wind speed (1.5 m/s for both days). To be considered in the evaluation, both the observed and predicted concentration had to exceed the threshold. Concentrations normalized by source release rate, C/Q, were tested. For all PFTs, samplers, and release times, the median observed and predicted

Dissolved helium and bromide tracers were used to evaluate trapped gas during an infiltration pond experiment. Dissolved helium preferentially partitioned into trapped gas bubbles, or other pore air, because of its low solubility in water. This produced observed helium retardation factors of as much as 12 relative to bromide. Numerical simulations of helium breakthrough with both equilibrium and kinetically limited advection/dispersion/retardation did not match observed helium concentrations. However, better fits were obtained by including a decay term representing the diffusive loss of helium through interconnected, gas-filled pores. Calculations indicate that 7% to more than 26% of the porosity beneath the pond was filled with gas. Measurements of laboratory hydraulic properties indicate that a 10% decrease in saturation would reduce the hydraulic conductivity by at least one order of magnitude in the well-sorted sandstone, but less in the overlying soils. This is consistent with in situ measurements during the experiment, which show steeper hydraulic gradients in sandstone than in soil. Intrinsic permeability of the soil doubled during the first six months of the experiment, likely caused by a combination of dissolution and thermal contraction of trapped gas. Managers of artificial recharge basins may consider minimizing the amount of trapped gas by using wet, rather than dry, tilling to optimize infiltration rates, particularly in well-sorted porous media in which reintroduced trapped gas may cause substantial reductions in permeability. Trapped gas may also inhibit the amount of focused infiltration that occurs naturally during ephemeral flood events along washes and playas.

Power law tails, a marked signature of anomalous transport, have been observed in solute breakthrough curves time and time again in a variety of hydrologic settings, including in streams. However, due to the low concentrations at which they occur they are notoriously difficult to measure with confidence. This leads us to ask if there are other associated signatures of anomalous transport that can be sought. We develop a general stochastic transport framework and derive an asymptotic relation between the tail scaling of a breakthrough curve for a conservative tracer at a fixed downstream position and the scaling of the peak concentration of breakthrough curves as a function of downstream position, demonstrating that they provide equivalent information. We then quantify the relevant spatiotemporal scales for the emergence of this asymptotic regime, where the relationship holds, in the context of a very simple model that represents transport in an idealized river. We validate our results using random walk simulations. The potential experimental benefits and limitations of these findings are discussed.

The NAPL-water interface is of critical importance for the transport, fate, and remediation of organic contaminants in the subsurface due to its influence on contaminant mass transfer, transport, and biotransformation. In this work, the interfacial areas between tetrachloroethene (PCE) liquid (non-wetting phase) and water (wetting phase) in porous media were measured under two-phase flow conditions using the interfacial partitioning tracertest (IPTT) method. Three wetting scenarios of primary drainage, secondary imbibition, and secondary drainage were investigated. Two porous media were used, a well-sorted 45/50 mesh quartz sand and a sandy soil. The theoretical maximum interfacial areas determined from the measured data are compared to the specific solid surface area determined in two ways, based on geometrical calculations for smooth spheres and as measured with the N2/BET method. The results obtained for the NAPL-water system are compared to measurements conducted for comparable air-water systems.

Dissolved helium and bromide tracers were used to evaluate trapped gas during an infiltration pond experiment. Dissolved helium preferentially partitioned into trapped gas bubbles, or other pore air, because of its low solubility in water. This produced observed helium retardation factors of as much as 12 relative to bromide. Numerical simulations of helium breakthrough with both equilibrium and kinetically limited advection/dispersion/retardation did not match observed helium concentrations. However, better fits were obtained by including a decay term representing the diffusive loss of helium through interconnected, gas-filled pores. Calculations indicate that 7% to more than 26% of the porosity beneath the pond was filled with gas. Measurements of laboratory hydraulic properties indicate that a 10% decrease in saturation would reduce the hydraulic conductivity by at least one order of magnitude in the well-sorted sandstone, but less in the overlying soils. This is consistent with in situ measurements during the experiment, which show steeper hydraulic gradients in sandstone than in soil. Intrinsic permeability of the soil doubled during the first six months of the experiment, likely caused by a combination of dissolution and thermal contraction of trapped gas. Managers of artificial recharge basins may consider minimizing the amount of trapped gas by using wet, rather than dry, tilling to optimize infiltration rates, particularly in well-sorted porous media in which reintroduced trapped gas may cause substantial reductions in permeability. Trapped gas may also inhibit the amount of focused infiltration that occurs naturally during ephemeral flood events along washes and playas. PMID:15318781

Reliable predictions of groundwater flow and solute transport require an estimation of the detailed distribution of the parameters (e.g., hydraulic conductivity, effective porosity) controlling these processes. However, such parameters are difficult to estimate because of the inaccessibility and complexity of the subsurface. In this regard, developments in parameter estimation techniques and investigations of field experiments are still challenging and necessary to improve our understanding and the prediction of hydrological processes. Here we analyze a conservative tracertest conducted at the Boise Hydrogeophysical Research Site in 2001 in a heterogeneous unconfined fluvial aquifer. Some relevant characteristics of this test include: variable-density (sinking) effects because of the injection concentration of the bromide tracer, the relatively small size of the experiment, and the availability of various sources of geophysical and hydrological information. The information contained in this experiment is evaluated through several parameter estimation approaches, including a grid-search-based strategy, stochastic simulation of hydrological property distributions, and deterministic inversion using regularization and pilot-point techniques. Doing this allows us to investigate hydraulic conductivity and effective porosity distributions and to compare the effects of assumptions from several methods and parameterizations. Our results provide new insights into the understanding of variable-density transport processes and the hydrological relevance of incorporating various sources of information in parameter estimation approaches. Among others, the variable-density effect and the effective porosity distribution, as well as their coupling with the hydraulic conductivity structure, are seen to be significant in the transport process. The results also show that assumed prior information can strongly influence the estimated distributions of hydrological properties.

Solute transport in rivers is controlled by surface hydrodynamics and by mass exchanges with distinct retention zones. Surface and hyporheic retention processes can be accounted for separately in solute transport models with multiple storage compartments. In the simplest two component model, short term storage can be associated to in-channel transient retention, e.g. produced by riparian vegetation or surface dead zones, and the long-term storage can be associated to hyporheic exchange. The STIR (Solute Transport In Rivers) multiple domain transport model is applied here to tracertest data from three very different Mediterranean streams with distinctive characteristics in terms of flow discharge, vegetation and substrate material. The model is used with an exponential residence time distribution (RTD) to represent surface storage processes and two distinct modeling closures are tested to simulate hyporheic retention: a second exponential RTD and a power-law distribution approximating a known solution for bedform-induced hyporheic exchange. Each stream shows distinct retention patterns characterized by different timescales of the storage time distribution. Both modeling closures lead to very good approximations of the observed breakthrough curves in the two rivers with permeable bed exposed to the flow, where hyporheic flows are expected to occur. In the one case where the occurrence of hyporheic flows is inhibited by bottom vegetation, only the two exponential RTD model is acceptable and the time scales of the two components are of the same magnitude. The significant finding of this work is the recognition of a strong signature of the river properties on tracer data and the evidence of the ability of multiple-component models to describe individual stream responses. This evidence may open a new perspective in river contamination studies, where rivers could possibly be classified based on their ability to trap and release pollutants.

Experiments were conducted at the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory in order to improve the understanding of radionuclide retention properties of fractured crystalline bedrock in the 10-100 m scale (TRUE Block Scale Project, jointly funded by ANDRA, ENRESA, Nirex, JNC, Posiva and SKB). A series of tracer experiments were performed using sorbing tracers in three different flow paths. The different flow paths had Euclidian lengths of 14, 17 and 33 m, respectively, and one to three water conducting structures. Four tests were performed using different cocktails made up of radioactive sorbing tracers ( 22,24Na +, 42K +, 47Ca 2+, 85Sr 2+, 83,86Rb +, 131,133Ba 2+ and 134,137Cs +). For each tracer injection, the breakthrough of sorbing tracers was compared to the breakthrough of a conservative tracer, 82Br -, 131I -, HTO and 186ReO 4-, respectively. In the two longer flow paths, no breakthrough of 83Rb + and 137Cs + was observed after 8 months of pumping. Selected tracertests were subject to basic modelling in which a one-dimensional (1D) advection-dispersion model, including surface sorption, and an unlimited matrix diffusion were used for the interpretation of the results. The results of the modelling indicated that there is a slightly higher mass transfer into a highly porous material in the block-scale experiment compared with in situ experiments performed over shorter distances and significantly higher than what would have been expected from laboratory data obtained from studies of the interactions in nonaltered intact rock.

Two natural-gradient tracertests were conducted to determine the transport and biodegradation behavior of linear alkylbenzenesulfonate (LAS) surfactant under in situ conditions in a sewage-contaminated aquifer. The tests were conducted in two biogeochemically distinct zones of the aquifer: (1) an aerobic uncontaminated zone (oxic zone) and (2) a moderately aerobic, sewage-contaminated zone (transition zone). Chromatographic separation of the surfactant mixture was observed in both zones and attributed to the retardation of the longer alkyl chain homologues during transport. No significant loss of IAS mass was observed for the oxic zone while 20% of the LAS mass injected into the transition zone was removed due to biodegradation. Biodegradation preferentially removed the longer alkyl chain homologues and the external isomers (i.e., 2- and 3-phenyl). The removal of LAS mass coincided with a decrease in dissolved oxygen concentrations, the appearance of LAS metabolites, and an increase in the number of free-living bacteria with a concomitant change in bacteria morphology. The formation of LAS metabolites accounted for 86% of the LAS mass removed in the transition zone. Over the duration of the test, sorption and biodegradation enriched the LAS mixture in the more water-soluble and biologically resistant components.Two natural-gradient tracertests were conducted to determine the transport and biodegradation behavior of linear alkylbenzenesulfonate (LAS) surfactant under in situ conditions in a sewage-contaminated aquifer. The tests were conducted in two biogeochemically distinct zones of the aquifer: (1) an aerobic uncontaminated zone (oxic zone) and (2) a moderately aerobic, sewage-contaminated zone (transition zone). Chromatographic separation of the surfactant mixture was observed in both zones and attributed to the retardation of the longer alkyl chain homologues during transport. No significant loss of LAS mass was observed for the oxic zone while 20% of the LAS

In October of 2004 over 1600 tons of CO2 was injected into a brine-bearing sandstone unit within the Frio Formation. An injection well was used to introduce the CO2 into the Frio at a depth of 1540 meters below the surface. A monitoring well located 31 meters updip from the injection well was used to sample formation fluids and detect the breakthrough of the CO2 plume. Perfluorocarbon tracers (PFTs) were injected in three paired intervals at the beginning and middle of the CO2 injection. The four PFTs selected for injection were perfluoromethylcyclopentane (PMCP), perfluoromethylcyclohexane (PMCH), perfluorodimethylcyclohexane (PDCH), and perfluorotrimethylcyclohexane (PTCH). The PFTs were used as a means to monitor CO2 plume breakthroughs and aid in the interpretation of CO2 flow path development. Fluid samples were collected at the monitoring well during and after the CO2 and PFT injections. These samples were later analyzed in the laboratory to measure the concentration of PFTs. Laboratory analysis was performed using a gas chromatograph (GC) equipped with an electron capture detector (ECD). Standardization of the data set was achieved by dividing C by Cno (C/Cno), where C is the molar mass of PFT and CO2 recovered and Cno is the initial molar mass of PFT and CO2 injected. The C/Cno data showed the amount of PFT dilution that occurred between injection and collection. Analysis of the C/Cno data revealed three breakthrough peaks corresponding with the three PFT injections at 54, 157, and 173 hours after the start of CO2 injection, with an average travel time of 51 hours for each injection. With each subsequent PFT peak a greater amount of PFT dilution was observed along with a broadening of the breakthrough peak. The first PFT breakthrough spans 10 hours, the second spans 20 hours and the third spans 24 hours. The increase in peak broadness observed in each subsequent breakthrough may have been caused by increased CO2 saturation. Since PFTs are more soluble in CO

This presentation provides an analysis of several tracertests conducted at the Grimsel Test Site, Switzerland, between 2010 and early 2012, with the objective of testing a conceptual model of flow through the shear zone in which the tracertests were conducted. The analysis includes predictions of tracer residence times in each of two flow pathways in the shear zone as a function of injection and extraction flow rates in the tracertests. Conclusions are: (1) Separation of shear zone flow between CFM 06.002i2 and Pinkel into two predominant flow pathways seems reasonable; (2) Conceptual model is that travel time in pathway 1 is dependent on injection flow rate, and travel time in pathway 2 is dependent on extraction flow rate; (3) Predict residence time (in hours) in Pathway 1 equal to {approx}9.9/(Injection Flow Rate, ml/min), provided injection interval flow is greater than about 0.15 ml/min (which is not reliably achieved under natural flow/dilution conditions after installation of CFM 11.00X holes); and (4) Predict residence time of {approx}8 hrs in Pathway 2 with extraction flow rate of 25 ml/min.

Flow-storage repartition (FSR) analysis (Shook 2003) is a versatile tool for characterizing subsurface flow and transport systems. FSR can be derived from measured signals of inter-well tracertests, if certain requirements are met - basically, the same as required for equivalence between fluid residence time distribution (RTD) and a measured inter-well tracer signal (pre-processed and de-convolved if necessary). Nominally, a FSR is derived from a RTD as a trajectory in normalized {1st, 0th}-order statistical moment space; more intuitively, as a parametric plot of 0th-order against 1st-order statistical moments of RTD truncated at time t, with t as a parameter running from the first tracer input to the latest available tracer sampling; 0th-order moments being normalized by the total tracer recovery, and 1st-order moments by the mean RT. Fracture-dominated systems plot in the upper left (high F , low S) region of FSR diagrams; a homogeneous single-continuum with no dispersion (infinite Peclet number) displays a straight line from {F ,S}={0,0} to {F ,S}={1,1}. This analysis tool appears particularly attractive for characterizing markedly-heterogeneous, porous-fissured-fractured (partly karstified) formations like those targeted by geothermal exploration in the Malm-Molasse basin in Southern Germany, and especially for quantifying flow and transport contributions from contrasting facies types ('reef' versus 'bedded'). However, tracertests conducted in such systems with inter-well distances of some hundreds of metres (as required by economic considerations on geothermal reservoir sizing) face the problem of very long residence times - and thus the need to deal with incomplete (truncated) signals. For the geothermal well triplet at the Sauerlach site near Munich, tracer peak arrival times exceeding 2 years have been predicted, and signal tails decreasing by less than 50% over >10 years, which puts great uncertainty on the (extrapolation-based) normalizing factors

The Southeast Geysers Cooperative Tracer Evaluation Program has been a joint project located in the SE part of the Geysers geothermal field, in Lake and Sonoma Counties, California. A new generation of environmentally benign vapor-phase tracers has been used to estimate the varying degrees to which injectate is being recovered following the significant increase of injected volumes within the Southeast Geysers.

Knowledge about the spatial variability of in situ denitrification rates (Dr(in situ)) and their relation to the denitrification capacity in nitrate-contaminated aquifers is crucial to predict the development of groundwater quality. Therefore, 28 push-pull 15N tracertests for the measurement of in situ denitrification rates were conducted in two sandy Pleistocene aquifers in northern Germany. The 15N analysis of denitrification-derived 15N-labelled N2 and N2O dissolved in water samples collected during the push-pull 15N tracertests was performed using isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) in the lab and additionally for some tracertests online in the field with a quadrupole membrane inlet mass spectrometer (MIMS) in order to test the feasibility of on-site real-time 15N analysis. Aquifer material from the same locations and depths as the push-pull injection points was incubated, and the initial and cumulative denitrification after 1 year of incubation (Dcum(365)) as well as the stock of reduced compounds (SRC) was compared with in situ measurements of denitrification. This was done to derive transfer functions suitable to predict Dcum(365) and SRC from Dr(in situ). Dr(in situ) ranged from 0 to 51.5 μg N kg-1 d-1. Denitrification rates derived from on-site isotope analysis using MIMS satisfactorily coincided with laboratory analysis by conventional IRMS, thus proving the feasibility of in situ analysis. Dr(in situ) was significantly higher in the sulfidic zone of both aquifers compared to the zone of non-sulfidic aquifer material. Overall, regressions between the Dcum(365) and SRC of the tested aquifer material with Dr(in situ) exhibited only a modest linear correlation for the full data set. However, the predictability of Dcum(365) and SRC from Dr(in situ) data clearly increased for aquifer samples from the zone of NO3--bearing groundwater. In the NO3--free aquifer zone, a lag phase of denitrification after NO3- injections was observed, which confounded the

Knowledge about the spatial variability of in situ denitrification rates (Dr(in situ)) and their relation to the denitrification capacity in nitrate-contaminated aquifers is crucial to predict the development of groundwater quality. Therefore, 28 push-pull 15N tracertests for the measurement of in situ denitrification rates were conducted in two sandy Pleistocene aquifers in Northern Germany. The 15N analysis of denitrification derived 15N labelled N2 and N2O dissolved in water samples collected during the push-pull 15N tracertests was performed by isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) in the lab and additionally for some tracertests online in the field with a quadrupole membrane inlet mass spectrometer (MIMS), in order to test the feasibility of on-site real-time 15N analysis. Aquifer material from the same locations and depths as the push-pull injection points was incubated and the initial and cumulative denitrification after one year of incubation (Dcum(365)) as well as the stock of reduced compounds (SRC) was compared with in situ measurements of denitrification. This was done to derive transfer functions suitable to predict Dcum(365) and SRC from Dr(in situ). Dr(in situ) ranged from 0 to 51.5 μg N kg-1 d-1. Denitrification rates derived from on-site isotope analysis using membrane-inlet mass spectrometry satisfactorily coincided with laboratory analysis by conventional isotope ratio mass spectrometry, thus proving the feasibility of in situ analysis. Dr(in situ) was significantly higher in the sulphidic zone of both aquifers compared to the zone of non-sulphidic aquifer material. Overall, regressions between the Dcum(365) and SRC of the tested aquifer material with Dr(in situ) exhibited only a modest linear correlation for the full data set. But the predictability of Dcum(365) and SRC from Dr(in situ) data clearly increased for aquifer samples from the zone of NO3--bearing groundwater. In the NO3--free aquifer zone a lag phase of denitrification after NO3

Several field tests will be carried out in order to characterize the reservoir for CO2 injection in Hontomín (Burgos, Spain) as part of the Compostilla project of "Fundación Ciudad de la Energía" (CIUDEN). Once injected, the dissolution of the CO2 in the resident brine will increase the acidity of the water and lead to the dissolution of the rocks, constituted mainly by carbonates. This mechanism will cause changes in the aquifer properties such as porosity and permeability. To reproduce the effect of the CO2 injection, a reactive solution with 2% of acetic acid is going to be injected in the reservoir and extracted from the same well (reactive "push-pull" tracertests) to identify and quantify the geochemical reactions occurring into the aquifer. The reactivity of the rock will allow us also to evaluate the changes of its properties. Previously, theoretical calculations of Damkhöler numbers were done to determine the acid concentrations and injection flow rates needed to generate ramified-wormholes patterns, during theses "push-pull" experiments. The aim of this work is to present the results and a preliminary interpretation of the field tests.

The BNL-developed perfluorocarbon tracer (PFT) technology includes a rapid-response real-time (5-second) analyzer (COPS) which can detect PFT concentrations as low as 1 {times} 10{sup {minus}11} mL/mL and a concentrating analyzer (DTA) which can measure down to 1 {times} 10{sup {minus}12} mL of PFT--separately quantifying up to 4 PFTs in a 6-min cycle time or less. Based on this technology, experimental leak- rate design concepts are proposed for determining the effectiveness (hermeticity) of the seal of semiconductor devices with internal cavities from 0.01 to 1 mL. The concept is based on pressurizing with PFT-containing air for 60 seconds, purging with PFT-free air for 60 seconds, pressure pulsing with air or He to extract the PFT leaked into the internal volume, and finally detecting the PFT vapor concentration with one of the two instruments. The COPS analyzer can quantify gross leaks from 1 {times} 10{sup {minus}7} to 1 {times} 10{sup {minus}3} mL/s in just 3 minutes for the complete test. The more-sensitive concentrating analyzer (DTA) can quantify fine leaks from 0.2 {times} 10{sup {minus}8} to 1 {times} 10{sup {minus}3} mL/s in just 12 minutes for the complete test; the latter procedure includes two determinations per test. 5 refs., 2 tabs.

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory are studying the migration of fission products away from explosion cavities formed by underground nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site. In some cases, the isotopic composition of the fission products or activation products associated with a particular test are distinctive and we may identify them many years after the event. In this paper we describe a case in which we used rhodium isotopes to identify the source of radioactive material that had moved some 350 m from the explosion site. 4 refs., 2 figs., 2 tabs.

A single-well injection-withdrawal (SWIW) test is evaluated as a tool to differentiate between single- and double-porosity conceptualizations of a system. Results from single-porosity simulations incorporating plume drift are also compared to observed data from a recent series of SWIW tests conducted in a fractured dolomite unit, for which a double-porosity conceptualization has been proposed. We evaluate the difficulty of differentiating the response for a double-porosity conceptualization from that for a heterogeneous, single-porosity conceptualization incorporating plume drift. Results of sensitivity studies on multiple, stochastically generated, heterogeneous transmissivity fields indicate that to simulate extremely slow mass-recovery rates for a SWIW test with a single-porosity conceptualization, the following conditions must be present: plume drift, extreme heterogeneities (high {sigma}InT), and an unusual configuration of the high and low transmissivity regions relative to the well location. A compilation of existing data suggests that the high degree of heterogeneity necessary is rare at the SWIW test scale.The observed data from the SWIW tracertests cannot be matched to numerical simulation results when a single-porosity conceptualization is assumed. A signature of significant drift is less than 100% mass recovery with a zero derivative with respect to time of the late-time normalized cumulative mass curve indicating mass transported outside the capture zone of the withdrawal well. To minimize the risk of misinterpretation, an important design feature for SWIW tests is the collection of late-time data so that percent total mass recovery can be calculated.

This study tracks the transport of bromide and microspheres mimicking pathogens in an arid environment. The study site uses the Rio Grande that experiences significant annual fluctuations in both water quantity and quality. The pumping well is 17 m from the stream bank and the water table was 2 m below the stream surface. The aquifer is medium and fine-grained sand comprising two flow units. Observation wells are screened over 1 or 1.5 m intervals. The average hydraulic conductivity was about 2 x 10-3 m/s based on a test analysis, however, the responses indicated that sediment heterogeneities affected the hydraulic behavior. A 427 hour tracertest using bromide and fluorescent microspheres provides initial results that are relevant to the transport of pathogens through the subsurface under riverbank filtration conditions. Bromide was injected into an observation well at the channel margin. Differently colored fluorescent microspheres (0.25nm, 1?m, 6?m and 10?m) were injected into the stream bottom and into two observation wells. Conclusions from the tracertest are: 1) Both bromide and microspheres continued to be observed throughout the 18 days of the experiment. 2) The bromide recovery in the pumping well and in the deeper observation wells showed early and late peaks with a long tails indicating that the geological medium at the field site behaves like a double-porosity medium allowing the tracer to move relatively quickly through the higher conductivity units while being significantly retarded in the low hydraulic conductivity units. 3) Some wells showed consistently higher concentrations of bromide. 4) The 1? micospheres were abundant in the observation wells and allowed tracing of flowpaths. These showed multiple peaks similar to the bromide results. This indicates highly preferential transport paths in the sediment. 5) Microspheres from the three injection sites had distinctly different transport paths and rates. 6) Both bromide and microspheres appeared in

The hyporheic zone has been identified as important for river ecology, natural biogeochemical turnover, filtration of particles, degradation of dissolved pollutants—and thus for the self-cleaning capacity of streams, and for groundwater quality. Good estimation of the traveltime distribution in the hyporheic zone is required to achieve a better understanding of transport in the river system. The transient-storage model has been accepted as an appropriate tool for reach-scale transport in rivers undergoing hyporheic exchange, but the choice of the best parametric function for the hyporheic traveltime distribution has remained unclear. We present an approach to obtaining hyporheic traveltime distributions from synchronous conservative and "smart" tracer experiments that does not rely on a particular functional form of the hyporheic traveltime distribution, but treats the latter as a continuous function. Nonnegativity of the hyporheic traveltime distribution is enforced by the application of Lagrange multipliers. A smoothness parameter, needed for regularization, and uncertainty bounds are obtained by the expectation-maximization method relying on conditional realizations. The shape-free inference provides the opportunity for capturing unconventional shapes, e.g., multiple peaks, in the estimation. We test the approach by applying it to a virtual test case with a bimodal hyporheic traveltime distribution, which is recaptured in the inversion of noisy data.

In radioactive tracer technique, radioactive nuclides are used to follow the behavior of elements or chemical species in chemical and other processes. This is realized by means of radioactivity measurement. In 1913, Hevesy and Paneth succeeded in determining the extremely low solubility of lead salts by using naturally occurring 210Pb as a radioactive tracer. As various radioactive nuclides became artificially available, this technique has been widely employed in studies of chemical equilibrium and reactions as well as in chemical analysis. It is also an essential technique in biochemical, biological, medical, geological, and environmental studies. Medical diagnosis and industrial process control are the fields of its most important practical application. In this chapter, fundamental ideas concerning radioactive tracers will be described followed by their application with typical examples. Detailed description on their application to life sciences and medicine is given in Vol. 4.

Naturally-occurring deuterium stable isotope ratios can potentially be used to trace water resource use by animals, but estimating the contribution of isotopically distinct water sources requires the accurate prediction of isotopic discrimination factors between water inputs and an animal's body water pool. We examined the feasibility of using estimates of water fluxes between a bird and its environment with a mass-balance model for the deuterium stable isotope ratio of avian body water (deltaDbody) to predict isotopic discrimination factors. Apparent fractionation and thus discrimination factors were predicted to vary with the proportion of an animal's total water losses than could be attributed to evaporative processes. To test our ability to predict isotopic discrimination, we manipulated water intake and evaporative water loss in rock doves (Columba livia) by providing them with fresh water or 0.15 M NaCl solution in thermoneutral or hot environments. After we switched the birds from drinking water with deltaD=-95 per thousand VSMOW (Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water) to enriched drinking water with deltaD=+52 per thousand VSMOW, steady-state deltaDbody was approached asymptotically. The equilibrium deltaDbody was enriched by 10-50 per thousand relative to water inputs. After isotopic equilibrium was reached, the degree of enrichment was positively related (r2=0.34) to the fraction of total water loss that occurred by evaporation (revap/rH2O)supporting the major prediction of the model. The variation we observed in discrimination factors suggests that the apparent fractionation of deuterium will be difficult to predict accurately under natural conditions. Our results show that accurate estimates of the contribution of different water sources to a bird's body water pool require large deuterium isotopic differences between the sources. PMID:15185137

Recent advances in geophysical methods have been increasingly exploited as inverse modeling tools in groundwater hydrology. In particular, several attempts to constrain the hydrogeophysical inverse problem to reduce inversion errors have been made using time-lapse geophysical measurements through both coupled and uncoupled (also known as sequential) inversion approaches. Despite the appeal and popularity of coupled inversion approaches, their superiority over uncoupled methods has not been proved conclusively; the goal of this work is to provide an objective comparison between the two approaches within a specific inversion modeling framework based on the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF). Using EnKF and a model of Lagrangian transport, we compare the performance of a fully coupled and uncoupled inversion method for the reconstruction of heterogeneous saturated hydraulic conductivity fields through the assimilation of ERT-monitored tracertest data. The two inversion approaches are tested in a number of different scenarios, including isotropic and anisotropic synthetic aquifers, where we change the geostatistical parameters used to generate the prior ensemble of hydraulic conductivity fields. Our results show that the coupled approach outperforms the uncoupled when the prior statistics are close to the ones used to generate the true field. Otherwise, the coupled approach is heavily affected by "filter inbreeding" (an undesired effect of variance underestimation typical of EnKF), while the uncoupled approach is more robust, being able to correct biased prior information, thanks to its capability of capturing the solute travel times even in presence of inversion artifacts such as the violation of mass balance. Furthermore, the coupled approach is more computationally intensive than the uncoupled, due to the much larger number of forward runs required by the electrical model. Overall, we conclude that the relative merit of the coupled versus the uncoupled approach cannot

Storglaciären glacier, located in the sub-arctic Tarfala catchment, in northern Sweden is one of the world's longest continuously monitored glaciers which provides a unique research platform for the long-term assessment of glacier and ice sheet processes. For example, small mountain glacier hydrological knowledge of the subglacial water distribution at the ice-bed interface has been applied to ice sheets to predict basal sliding processes. Basal sliding promoted by hydraulic jacking is an important glacial-velocity control that is dependent on the subglacial flow pathways' morphology. Thus, understanding subglacial water distribution and drainage system structure and morphology is crucial for modeling ice masses' flow. In order to estimate subglacial drainage system structure and morphology dye tracing experiments are widely employed. Tracer experiments provide quantitative parameters for any input location including tracer transit velocity, dispersivity, recovery and storage. However, spatial data coverage is limited by the finite number of tracers available for simultaneous tracing. In the presented study we test the use of synthetic DNA tracers for the assessment of the englacial and subglacial drainage system structure of Storglaciären. The synthetic DNA tracer is composed of polylactic acid (PLA) microspheres into which short strands of synthetic DNA and paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles are incorporated (Sharma et al., 2012, Environmental Science & Technology). Because the DNA sequences can be randomly combined the synthetic DNA tracer provides an enormous number of unique tracers (approximately 1.61 x 1060). Thus, these synthetic tracers have the advantage that multiple (>10) experiments can be conducted simultaneously, allowing a greater information gain within a shorter measurement period. Quantities of a certain DNA strand can be detected using biotechnology tools such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and quantitative PCR (qPCR). During the 2013

The two major requirements for a successful regional tracer system are distinctness of signatures and stability of signatures during transport. Dissimilarity of the five regional signatures from eastern North America is shown by collinearity diagnostics and by apportionment of synthetic samples generated randomly. Stability of regional signatures during transport is shown first by use of tracer elements in coarse and fine aerosol to predict the maximum possible change of ratios from particle-size effects alone and then by examination of actual changes in signatures during transport from the Midwest to Underhill, VT. Two recent empirical validations of the tracer system are presented: qualitative agreement of pulses of mid-western aerosol in Vermont with pulses of perfluorocarbon tracer gas released in Ohio during CAPTEX '83 and reproduction of our three major northeastern and mid-western signatures by other investigators. The tracer system currently uses the seven elements As, Se, Sb, Zn, In, noncrustal Mn, and noncrustal V as measured by instrumental neutron activation.

In the course of the energy transition, geothermal energy storage and heat generation and cooling have proven to be environmental friendly alternatives to conventional energy. However, to ensure sustain usage, the heat transport behavior of aquifers and its distribution has to be studied. A tool to achieve this is the active heat tracertest, eg. Leaf et al. (2012). If active heat tracertests are combined with in aquifer heat testing via electric heating-cables, eg. Liu et al. (2013), it is possible to observe heat transport and temperature signal decay without disturbing the original pressure field within the aquifer. In this field study a two channel High-Resolution-Fiber-Optic-Distributed-Temperature-Sensing and Pt100 were used to measure temperature signals within in two wells of 1.4 m distance, where the temperature difference was generated using a self regulating heating cable in the upstream well. High resolution Distributed-Temperature-Sensing measurements were achieved by coiling the fiber around screened plastic tubes. The upstream well was also used to observe heating (Δ Tmax approx. 24K) and temperature signal decay, while the downstream well was used to observe heat transport between both wells. The data was analyzed and compared to thermal conductivity of soil samples and Direct-Push (DP) Electrical-Conductivity-Logging and DP Hydraulic-Profiling results. The results show good agreement between DP data and temperature measurements proving the active heat tracertest is a suitable tool for providing reliable information on aquifer heat-storage capability. References Leaf, A.T., Hart, D.J., Bahr, J.M.: Active Thermal TracerTests for Improved Hydrostratigraphic Characterization. Ground Water, vol. 50, 2012 Liu, G., Knobbe, S., Butler, J.J.Jr.: Resolving centimeter-scale flows in aquifers and their hydrostratigraphic controls. Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 40, 2013

Dispersive transport of groundwater solutes was investigated as part of a multispecies reactive tracertest conducted under spatially variable chemical conditions in an unconfined, sewage-contaminated sand and gravel aquifer on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Transport of the nonreactive tracer bromide (Br) reflected physical and hydrologic processes. Transport of the reactive tracer nickel (Ni) complexed with an organic ligand (NiEDTA) varied in response to pH and other chemical conditions within the aquifer. A loss of about 14% of the Ni mass was calculated from the distribution of tracers through time. This loss is consistent with reversible adsorption of NiEDTA onto the iron and aluminum oxyhydroxide coatings on the aquifer sediments. The Ni consistently lagged behind Br with a calculated retardation coefficient of 1.2. Longitudinal dispersivities reached constant values of 2.2 and 1.1 m for Br and Ni, respectively, by at least 69 m of travel. The smaller dispersivity for Ni possibly was due to nonlinear or spatially variant adsorption of NiEDTA. In the upper, uncontaminated zone of the aquifer, longitudinal dispersion of Ni was greater than that of Br early in the test as a result of reversible adsorption of NiEDTA. In general, transverse dispersivities were much smaller (horizontal: 1.4-1.5 ?? 10-2 m; vertical: 0.5-3.8 ?? 10-3 m) than the longitudinal dispersivities. The Br results are similar to those from a test conducted eight years earlier, suggesting that transport parameters are spatially stationary within the aquifer at the scale of 300 m covered by the spatially overlapping tests. A significant difference between the two tests was the travel distance (69 and 26 m) needed to reach a constant longitudinal dispersivity.

Estimating respiration and photosynthesis rates in streams usually requires good knowledge of reaeration at the given locations. For this purpose, gas-tracertests can be conducted, and reaeration rate coefficients are determined from the decrease in gas concentration along the river stretch. The typical procedure for analysis of such tests is based on simplifying assumptions, as it neglects dispersion altogether and does not consider possible fluctuations and trends in the input signal. We mathematically derive the influence of these non-idealities on estimated reaeration rates and how they are propagated onto the evaluation of aerobic respiration and photosynthesis rates from oxygen monitoring. We apply the approach to field data obtained from a gas-tracertest using propane in a second-order stream in Southwest Germany. We calculate the reaeration rate coefficients accounting for dispersion as well as trends and uncertainty in the input signals and compare them to the standard approach. We show that neglecting dispersion significantly underestimates reaeration, and results between sections cannot be compared if trends in the input signal of the gas tracer are disregarded. Using time series of dissolved oxygen and the various estimates of reaeration, we infer respiration and photosynthesis rates for the same stream section, demonstrating that the bias and uncertainty of reaeration using the different approaches significantly affects the calculation of metabolic rates. PMID:26150069

A tracertest was performed at the Rifle Integrated Field Research Challenge site to assess the effect of addition of bicarbonate on U(VI) desorption from contaminated sediments in the aquifer and to compare equilibrium and rate-limited reactive transport model descriptions of mass transfer limitations on desorption. The tracertest consisted of injection of a 37 mM NaHCO3solution containing conservative tracers followed by down-gradient sampling of groundwater at various elevations and distances from the point of injection. Breakthrough curves show that dissolved U(VI) concentrations increased 1.2-2.6-fold above background levels, resulting from increases in bicarbonate alkalinity (from injectate solution) and Ca concentrations (from cation exchange). In general, more U(VI) was mobilized in shallower zones of the aquifer, where finer-grained sediments and higher solid phase U content were found compared to deeper zones. An equilibrium-based reactive transport model incorporating a laboratory-based surface complexation model derived from the same location predicted the general trends in dissolved U(VI) during the tracertest but greatly overpredicted the concentrations of U(VI), indicating that the system was not at equilibrium. Inclusion of a multirate mass transfer model successfully simulated the nonequilibrium desorption behavior of U(VI). Local sediment properties such as sediment texture (weight percent <2 mm), surface area, cation exchange capacity, and adsorbed U(VI) were heterogeneous at the meter scale, and it was important to incorporate these values into model parameters in order to produce accurate simulations.

At the geothermal pilot site Horstberg in the N-German Sedimentary Basin, a complex field experiment program was conducted (2003-2007) by the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) together with the Leibniz Institute for Applied Geosciences (GGA), aimed at evaluating the performance of innovative technologies for heat extraction, for direct use, from a single geothermal well[1],[2]. The envisaged single-well operation schemes comprised inter-layer circulation through a large-area hydrofrac (whose successful creation could thus be demonstrated), and single-screen 'huff-puff' in suitable (stimulated) layers, seated in sandstone-claystone formations in 3-4 km depth, with temperatures exceeding 160 ° C. Relying on Horstberg tracer-test data, we analyze heat and solute tracer transport in three characteristic hydraulic settings: (A) single-screen, multi-layer push-pull, with spiking and sampling at lower well-screen in low-permeability sandstone layer ('Detfurth'), from which hydrofrac propagation (through several adjacent layers) was initiated; (B) single-screen, single-layer push-pull, with spiking and sampling at upper well-screen within a more permeable sandstone layer ('Solling'); (C) inter-layer vertical push through above-mentioned hydrofrac, with spiking at well-screen of A, and sampling at well-screen of B. Owing to drill-hole deviation, the hydraulically-induced frac will, in its vertical propagation, reach the upper sandstone layer in a certain horizontal distance X from the upper well-screen, whose value turns out to be the major controlling parameter for the system's thermal lifetime under operation scheme C (values of X below ~8 m leading to premature thermal breakthrough, with the minimum-target rate of fluid turnover; however, the injection pressure required for maintaining the target outflow rate will also increase with X, which renders scheme C uneconomical, or technically-infeasible, when X exceeds ~15 m). Tracer signals in C

This work studied tracer and thermal transients during reinjection in geothermal reserviors and developed a new technique which combines the results from interwell tracertests and thermal injection-backflow tests to estimate the thermal breakthrough times. Tracertests are essential to determine the degree of connectivity between the injection wells and the producing wells. To analyze the tracer return profiles quantitatively, we employed three mathematical models namely, the convection-dispersion (CD) model, matrix diffusion (MD) model, and the Avodnin (AD) model, which were developed to study tracer and heat transport in a single vertical fracture. We considered three types of tracertests namely, interwell tracertests without recirculation, interwell tracertests with recirculation, and injection-backflow tracertests. To estimate the model parameters, we used a nonlinear regression program to match tracer return profiles to the solutions.

A gas-phase tracertest (GTT) was conducted at a landfill in Tucson, AZ, to help elucidate the impact of landfill gas generation on the transport and fate of chlorinated aliphatic volatile organic contaminants (VOCs). Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) was used as the non-reactive gas tracer. Gas samples were collected from a multiport monitoring well located 15.2 m from the injection well, and analyzed for SF6, CH4, CO2, and VOCs. The travel times determined for SF6 from the tracertest are approximately two to ten times smaller than estimated travel times that incorporate transport by only gas-phase diffusion. In addition, significant concentrations of CH4 and CO2 were measured, indicating production of landfill gas. Based on these results, it is hypothesized that the enhanced rates of transport observed for SF6 are caused by advective transport associated with landfill gas generation. The rates of transport varied vertically, which is attributed to multiple factors including spatial variability of water content, refuse mass, refuse permeability, and gas generation. PMID:26380532

A multispecies numerical code was developed to simulate flow and mass transport with kinetic adsorption in variable-density flow systems. The two-dimensional code simulated the transport of bromide (Br-), a nonreactive tracer, and lithium (Li+), a reactive tracer, in a large-scale tracertest performed in a sand-and-gravel aquifer at Cape Cod, Massachusetts. A two-fraction kinetic adsorption model was implemented to simulate the interaction of Li+ with the aquifer solids. Initial estimates for some of the transport parameters were obtained from a nonlinear least squares curve-fitting procedure, where the breakthrough curves from column experiments were matched with one-dimensional theoretical models. The numerical code successfully simulated the basic characteristics of the two plumes in the tracertest. At early times the centers of mass of Br- and Li+ sank because the two plumes were closely coupled to the density-driven velocity field. At later times the rate of downward movement in the Br- plume due to gravity slowed significantly because of dilution by dispersion. The downward movement of the Li+ plume was negligible because the two plumes moved in locally different velocity regimes, where Li+ transport was retarded relative to Br-. The maximum extent of downward transport of the Li+ plume was less than that of the Br- plume. This study also found that at early times the downward movement of a plume created by a three-dimensional source could he much more extensive than the case with a two-dimensional source having the same cross-sectional area. The observed shape of the Br- plume at Cape Cod was simulated by adding two layers with different hydraulic conductivities at shallow depth across the region. The large dispersion and asymmetrical shape of the Li+ plume were simulated by including kinetic adsorption-desorption reactions.

To evaluate the potential for transport of radionuclides in ground water from the proposed high-level nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, conservative (nonsorbing) tracertests were conducted among three boreholes, known as the C-hole Complex, and values for transport (or flow) porosity, storage (or matrix) porosity, longitudinal dispersivity, and the extent of matrix diffusion were obtained. The C-holes are completed in a sequence of Miocene tuffaceous rock, consisting of nonwelded to densely welded ash-flow tuff with intervals of ash-fall tuff and volcaniclastic rocks, covered by Quaternary alluvium. The lower part of the tuffaceous-rock sequence includes the Prow Pass, Bullfrog, and Tram Tuffs of the Crater Flat Group. The rocks are pervaded by tectonic and cooling fractures. Paleozoic limestone and dolomite underlie the tuffaceous rocks. Four radially convergent and one partially recirculating conservative (nonsorbing) tracertests were conducted at the C-hole Complex from 1996 to 1998 to establish values for flow porosity, storage porosity, longitudinal dispersivity, and extent of matrix diffusion in the Bullfrog and Tram Tuffs and the Prow Pass Tuff. Tracertests included (1) injection of iodide into the combined Bullfrog-Tram interval; (2) injection of 2,6 difluorobenzoic acid into the Lower Bullfrog interval; (3) injection of 3-carbamoyl-2-pyridone into the Lower Bullfrog interval; and (4) injection of iodide and 2,4,5 trifluorobenzoic acid, followed by 2,3,4,5 tetrafluorobenzoic acid, into the Prow Pass Tuff. All tracertests were analyzed by the Moench single- and dual-porosity analytical solutions to the advection-dispersion equation or by superposition of these solutions. Nonlinear regression techniques were used to corroborate tracer solution results, to obtain optimal parameter values from the solutions, and to quantify parameter uncertainty resulting from analyzing two of the three radially convergent conservative tracertests

The variation of dissolved oxygen (DO) in streams, are caused by a number of processes, of which respiration and primary production are considered to be the most important ones (Odum, 1956; Staehr et al., 2012). Measuring respiration and photosynthesis rates in streams based on recorded time series of DO requires good knowledge on the reaeration fluxes at the given locations. For this, gas tracertests can be conducted, and reaeration coefficients determined from the observed decrease in gas concentration along the stretch (Genereux and Hemond, 1990): ( ) --1- -cup- k2 = t2 - t1 ln Rcdown (1) with the gas concentrations measured at an upstream location, cup[ML-3], and a downstream location, cdown. t1[T] andt2 [T] denote the measurement times at the two locations and R [-] represents the recovery rate which can also be obtained from conservative tracer data. The typical procedure for analysis, however, contains a number of assumptions, as it neglects dispersion and does not take into account possible fluctuations of the input signal. We derive the influence of these aspects mathematically and illustrate them on the basis of field data obtained from a propane gas tracertest. For this, we compare the reaeration coefficients obtained from approaches with dispersion and/or a time-dependent input signals to the standard approach. Travel times and travel time distributions between the different measurement stations are obtained from a simultaneously performed conservative tracertest with fluorescein. In order to show the carry-over effect to metabolic rates, we furthermore estimate respiration and photosynthesis rates from the calculated reaeration coefficients and measured oxygen data. This way, we are able to show that neglecting dispersion significantly underestimates reaeration, and the impact of the time-dependent input concentration cannot be disregarded either. When estimated reaeration rates are used to calculate respiration and photosynthesis from measured

Chlorinated solvents as dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) are present at a large number of hazardous waste sites across the U.S. and world. DNAPL is difficult to detect in the subsurface, much less characterize to any degree of accuracy. Without proper site characterization, remedial decisions are often difficult to make and technically effective, cost-efficient remediations are even more difficult to obtain. A new non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) characterization technology that is superior to conventional technologies has been developed and applied at full-scale. This technology, referred to as the Partitioning Interwell TracerTest (PITT), has been adopted from oil-field practices and tailored to environmental application in the vadose and saturated zones. A PITT has been applied for the first time at full-scale to characterize DNAPL in the vadose zone. The PITT was applied in December 1995 beneath two side-by-side organic disposal pits at Sandia National Laboratories/New Mexico (SNL/NM) RCRA Interim Status Chemical Waste Landfill (CWL), located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. DNAPL, consisting of a mixture of chlorinated solvents, aromatic hydrocarbons, and PCE oils, is known to exist in at least one of the two buried pits. The vadose zone PITT was conducted by injecting a slug of non-partitioning and NAPL-partitioning tracers into and through a zone of interest under a controlled forced gradient. The forced gradient was created by a balanced extraction of soil gas at a location 55 feet from the injector. The extracted gas stream was sampled over time to define tracer break-through curves. Soil gas sampling ports from multilevel monitoring installations were sampled to define break-through curves at specific locations and depths. Analytical instrumentation such as gas chromatographs and a photoacoustical analyzers operated autonomously, were used for tracer detection.

Heterogeneity in aquifer permeability, which creates paths of varying mass flux and spatially complex contaminant plumes, can complicate the interpretation of contaminant fate and transport in groundwater. Identifying the location of high mass flux paths is critical for the reliable estimation of solute transport parameters and design of groundwater remediation schemes. Dipole flow tracertests (DFTTs) and push-pull tests (PPTs) are single well forced-gradient tests which have been used at field-scale to estimate aquifer hydraulic and transport properties. In this study, the potential for PPTs and DFTTs to resolve the location of layered high- and low-permeability layers in granular porous media was investigated with a pseudo 2-D bench-scale aquifer model. Finite element fate and transport modelling was also undertaken to identify appropriate set-ups for in situ tests to determine the type, magnitude, location and extent of such layered permeability contrasts at the field-scale. The characteristics of flow patterns created during experiments were evaluated using fluorescent dye imaging and compared with the breakthrough behaviour of an inorganic conservative tracer. The experimental results show that tracer breakthrough during PPTs is not sensitive to minor permeability contrasts for conditions where there is no hydraulic gradient. In contrast, DFTTs are sensitive to the type and location of permeability contrasts in the host media and could potentially be used to establish the presence and location of high or low mass flux paths. Numerical modelling shows that the tracer peak breakthrough time and concentration in a DFTT is sensitive to the magnitude of the permeability contrast (defined as the permeability of the layer over the permeability of the bulk media) between values of 0.01-20. DFTTs are shown to be more sensitive to deducing variations in the contrast, location and size of aquifer layered permeability contrasts when a shorter central packer is used

Heterogeneity in aquifer permeability, which creates paths of varying mass flux and spatially complex contaminant plumes, can complicate the interpretation of contaminant fate and transport in groundwater. Identifying the location of high mass flux paths is critical for the reliable estimation of solute transport parameters and design of groundwater remediation schemes. Dipole flow tracertests (DFTTs) and push-pull tests (PPTs) are single well forced-gradient tests which have been used at field-scale to estimate aquifer hydraulic and transport properties. In this study, the potential for PPTs and DFTTs to resolve the location of layered high- and low-permeability layers in granular porous media was investigated with a pseudo 2-D bench-scale aquifer model. Finite element fate and transport modelling was also undertaken to identify appropriate set-ups for in situ tests to determine the type, magnitude, location and extent of such layered permeability contrasts at the field-scale. The characteristics of flow patterns created during experiments were evaluated using fluorescent dye imaging and compared with the breakthrough behaviour of an inorganic conservative tracer. The experimental results show that tracer breakthrough during PPTs is not sensitive to minor permeability contrasts for conditions where there is no hydraulic gradient. In contrast, DFTTs are sensitive to the type and location of permeability contrasts in the host media and could potentially be used to establish the presence and location of high or low mass flux paths. Numerical modelling shows that the tracer peak breakthrough time and concentration in a DFTT is sensitive to the magnitude of the permeability contrast (defined as the permeability of the layer over the permeability of the bulk media) between values of 0.01-20. DFTTs are shown to be more sensitive to deducing variations in the contrast, location and size of aquifer layered permeability contrasts when a shorter central packer is used

A survey of potential non-conservative tracers for use in source-receptor studies in acid deposition is presented. Classes of tracers considered were water soluble tracers, chemically reactive tracers, adsorptive tracers and particulate tracers. A criterion used for the selection of compounds for nonconservative tracers is that they be as reasonably compatible in the analytical detection system used for the conservative perfluorocarbon tracers. For each class of non-conservative tracers several example compounds are given and discussed, along with the research needed to develop these tracers. A reasonable development time for these tracers is as follows; adsorptive tracers, 2 years; particulate tracers, 2 1/2 years; soluble tracers, 3 years and reactive tracers, 3 1/2 years. By development, it is meant that 1 or 2 tracers have been developed and at least demonstrated in a small field test. 6 refs., 2 tabs.

In order to obtain the necessary characterization for the storage of nuclear waste, much higher resolution of the features likely to affect the transport of radionuclides will be required than is normally achieved in conventional surface seismic reflection used in the exploration and characterization of petroleum and geothermal resources. Because fractures represent a significant mechanical anomaly seismic methods using are being investigated as a means to image and characterize the subsurface. Because of inherent limitations in applying the seismic methods solely from the surface, state-of-the-art borehole methods are being investigated to provide high resolution definition within the repository block. Therefore, Vertical Seismic Profiling (VSP) and cross-hole methods are being developed to obtain maximum resolution of the features that will possible affect the transport of fluids. Presented here will be the methods being developed, the strategy being pursued, and the rational for using VSP and crosshole methods at Yucca Mountain. The approach is intended to be an integrated method involving improvements in data acquisition, processing, and interpretation as well as improvements in the fundamental understanding of seismic wave propagation in fractured rock. 33 refs., 4 figs.

Fluid-fluid interfacial area for porous media systems can be measured with the aqueous phase interfacial partitioning tracertest (IPTT) method or with high-resolution microtomography. The results of prior studies have shown that interfacial areas measured with the IPTT method are larger than values measured with microtomography. The observed disparity has been hypothesized to result from the impact of porous medium surface roughness on film-associated interfacial area, wherein the influence of surface roughness is characterized to some extent by the IPTT method but not by microtomography due to resolution constraints. This hypothesis was tested by using the two methods to measure interfacial area between an organic immiscible liquid and water for an ideal glass beads medium that has no measurable surface roughness. The tracertests yielded a mean interfacial area of 2.8 (±5 cm-1), while microtomography produced an interfacial area of 2.7 (±2 cm-1). Maximum specific interfacial areas, equivalent to areas normalized by nonwetting fluid volume, were calculated and compared to measures of the specific solid surface area. The normalized interfacial areas were similar to the specific solid surface area calculated using the smooth sphere assumption and to the specific solid surface area measured using the N2/Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller (BET) method. The results presented herein indicate that both the IPTT and microtomography methods provide robust characterization of fluid-fluid interfacial area and that they are comparable in the absence of the impact of surface roughness.

Fluid-fluid interfacial area for porous-media systems can be measured with the aqueous-phase interfacial partitioning tracertest (IPTT) method or with high-resolution microtomography. The results of prior studies have shown that interfacial areas measured with the IPTT method are larger than values measured with microtomography. The observed disparity has been hypothesized to result from the impact of porous-medium surface roughness on film-associated interfacial area, wherein the influence of surface roughness is characterized to some extent by the IPTT method but not by microtomography due to resolution constraints. This hypothesis was tested by using the two methods to measure interfacial area between an organic immiscible liquid and water for an ideal glass-beads medium that has no measurable surface roughness. The tracertests yielded a mean interfacial area of 2.8 (± 5 cm(-1)), while microtomography produced an interfacial area of 2.7 (± 2 cm(-1)). Maximum specific interfacial areas, equivalent to areas normalized by non-wetting fluid volume, were calculated and compared to measures of the specific solid surface area. The normalized interfacial areas were similar to the specific solid surface area calculated using the smooth-sphere assumption, and to the specific solid surface area measured using the N2/BET method. The results presented herein indicate that both the IPTT and microtomography methods provide robust characterization of fluid-fluid interfacial area, and that they are comparable absent the impact of surface roughness. PMID:24604925

Personnel from Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc. (Energy Systems) manage a closed hazardous waste disposal unit the Chestnut Ridge Security Pits (CRSP), located on the crest of Chestnut Ridge near the Y-12 Plant, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. To investigate the discharge of groundwater from CRSP to springs and streams located along the flanks and base of Chestnut Ridge, an initial dye-tracer study was conducted during 1990. A hydraulic connection was inferred to exist between the injection well (GW-178) on Chestnut Ridge and several sites to the east-northeast, east, and southeast of CRSP. A second dye-tracer study was conducted in 1992 to verify the results of the initial test and identify additional discharge points that are active during wet-weather conditions. No definitive evidence for the presence of dye was identified at any of the 35 locations monitored during the second dye study. Although interpretations of the initial dye test suggest a hydraulic connection with several sites and CRSP, reevaluation of the spectrofluorescence data from this test suggests that dye may not have been detected during the initial test. A combination of relatively high analytical detection limits during the initial test, and high natural background interference spectral peaks observed during the second test, suggest that high natural background emission spectra near the wavelength of the dye used during the initial test may have caused the apparently high reported concentrations. The results of these two tests do not preclude that a hydraulic connection exists; dye may be present in concentrations below the analytical detection limits or has yet to emerge from the groundwater system. The dye injection well is not completed within any significant karst features. Dye migration therefore, may be within a diffuse, slow-flow portion of the aquifer, at least in the immediate vicinity of the source well.

Gas transfer processes are fundamental to the biogeochemical and water quality functions of wetlands, yet there is limited knowledge of the rates and pathways of soil-atmosphere exchange for gases other than oxygen and methane (CH4). In this study, we use a novel push-pull technique with sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) and helium (He) as dissolved gas tracers to quantify the kinetics of root-mediated gas transfer, which is a critical efflux pathway for gases from wetland soils. This tracer approach disentangles the effects of physical transport from simultaneous reaction in saturated, vegetated wetland soils. We measured significant seasonal variation in first-order gas exchange rate constants, with smaller spatial variations between different soil depths and vegetation zones in a New Jersey tidal marsh. Gas transfer rates for most biogeochemical trace gases are expected to be bracketed by the rate constants for SF6 and He, which ranged from ˜10-2 to 2 × 10-1 h-1 at our site. A modified Damköhler number analysis is used to evaluate the balance between biochemical reaction and root-driven gas exchange in governing the fate of environmental trace gases in rooted, anaerobic soils. This approach confirmed the importance of plant gas transport for CH4, and showed that root-driven transport may affect nitrous oxide (N2O) balances in settings where N2O reduction rates are slow.

Better characterization of reservoirs requires better images of those reservoirs. This report documents the research undertaken at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology`s Earth Resources Laboratory (ERL) to improve seismic tomographic images. In addition, the new imaging method was applied to a data set collected in a producing oil field. The method developed is nonlinear travel time tomography. This technique uses the travel time of the first arriving energy at a receiver and distributes that time back along realistic ray paths. This is an important distinction between this method and previous methods that used either straight ray paths from source to receiver or fixed ray paths (ray paths fixed by an a priori model). The nonlinearity arises during each iteration in the matching of observed travel times with those determined from a model. In this technique the model is updated during each iteration (the velocity structure is changed) and new ray paths are computed in that update model. Thus the resulting image is based on physically realistic ray paths. Tomography resolution is not merely a simple function of the wavelength of the seismic energy used but also involves a measure of how well a given region has been sampled by ray paths. Moreover, the ray paths must represent a wide variation in inclination as they pass through a given spatial cell. This imaging technique was applied to a compressional wave data set collected at ERL`s Michigan Test Site located in the Northern Reef Trend of MI. It consists of two deep boreholes that straddle a producing reef. Two hundred source positions and two hundred receiver positions were used to obtain 40,000 ray paths. Although ERL`s boreholes are 2,000 ft apart, kilohertz data was obtained. The resulting image of the reservoir showed a low velocity zone inside the reef and a thin layer of low velocity that intersected one of the boreholes. The presence of this thin layer was confirmed by logs and borehole engineering.

To study transport and reactions of arsenic under field conditions, a small-scale tracertest was performed in an anoxic, iron-reducing zone of a sandy aquifer at the USGS research site on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA. For four weeks, a stream of groundwater with added As(V) (6.7 muM) and bromide (1.6 mM), was injected in order to observe the reduction of As(V) to As(III). Breakthrough of bromide (Br(-)), As(V), and As(III) as well as additional parameters characterizing the geochemical conditions was observed at various locations downstream of the injection well over a period of 104 days. After a short lag period, nitrate and dissolved oxygen from the injectate oxidized ferrous iron and As(V) became bound to the freshly formed hydrous iron oxides. Approximately one week after terminating the injection, anoxic conditions had been reestablished and increases in As(III) concentrations were observed within 1 m of the injection. During the observation period, As(III) and As(V) were transported to a distance of 4.5 m downgradient indicating significant retardation by sorption processes for both species. Sediment assays as well as elevated concentrations of hydrogen reflected the presence of As(V) reducing microorganisms. Thus, microbial As(V) reduction was thought to be one major process driving the release of As(III) during the tracertest in the Cape Cod aquifer. PMID:16945450

The setup of the hydraulic model structure of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is an important step in the calibration of activated sludge models. The hydrodynamics of a full-scale municipal WWTP (Monterrey, Mexico) has been studied by means of the use of tracertests and of a commercial simulator. A presimulation approach allowed the authors to quantify the appropriate rhodamine mass, set up a sampling plan, and evaluate the anticipated visual effect of the tracertest in the receiving river. The hydraulic behavior of the aeration tank for the first treatment line, a 7-cell plug-flow reactor, was shown to be best represented by 5 virtual mixed-tanks-in-series. The second treatment line, which included a vertical loop reactor (VLR), was best modeled as 3 tanks-in-series. The VLR, alone, was shown to be similar to a continuously stirred tank reactor, and not a circuit of tanks, as generally used to represent oxidation ditch reactors. PMID:17824536

The interaction of surface water and hyporheic water along the Santa Clara River in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, California, was evaluated by conducting tracertests and analyzing water-quality data under different flow conditions in October 1999 and May 2000. Tracer and water-quality samples were collected at multiple river and hyporheic sites as well as at the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts Saugus and Valencia Water Reclamation Plants. These water reclamation plants provide the main source of base flow in the river. Rhodamine WT dye was injected into the river to determine river traveltimes and to indicate when Lagrangian water-quality sampling could be performed at each site. Sodium bromide was injected into the river at a constant rate at the water reclamation plants to evaluate the surface-water and shallow ground-water interactions in the hyporheic zone. In the upper reach of the study area, which extends 2.9 river miles downstream from the Saugus Water Reclamation Plant, traveltime was 3.2 hours during May 2000. In the lower reach, which extends 14.1 river miles downstream from the Valencia Water Reclamation Plant, traveltime was 9.6 hours during October 1999 and 7.1 hours during May 2000. The sodium bromide tracer was detected at both hyporheic locations sampled during October 1999, and at two of the three hyporheic locations sampled during May 2000. On the basis of Rhodamine dye tests, flow curves were constructed from the discharge measurements in the Valencia reach. Flow-curve results indicate net gains in flow throughout most, but not all, of the upper parts of the reach and net losses in flow at the lower part of the reach. Lagrangian water-quality sampling provides information on the changes in chemistry as the water flows downstream from the water reclamation plants. Along both reaches there is an increase in sulfate (40-60 mg/L in the Saugus reach and 160 mg/L in the Valencia reach) and a decrease in chloride (about 45 mg/L in the

Physical behavior of fractured aquifers is rigorously controlled by the presence of interconnected conductive fractures, as they represent the main pathways for flow and transport. Ideally, they are simulated as a discrete fracture network (DFN) in a model to capture the role of fracture system geometry, i.e. fracture length, height, and width (aperture/transmissivity). Such network may be constrained by prior geological information or direct data resources such as field mapping, borehole logging and geophysics. With the many geometric features, however, calibration of a DFN to measured data is challenging. This is especially the case when spatial properties of a fracture network need to be calibrated to flow and transport data. One way to increase the insight in a fractured rock is by combining the information from multiple field tests. In this study, a tomographic configuration that combines multiple tracertests is suggested. These tests are conducted from a borehole with different injection levels that act as sources. In a downgradient borehole, the tracer is recorded at different levels or receivers, in order to maximize insight in the spatial heterogeneity of the rock. As tracer here we chose heat, and temperature breakthrough curves are recorded. The recorded tracer data is inverted using a novel stochastic trans-dimensional Markov Chain Monte Carlo procedure. An initial DFN solution is generated and sequentially modified given available geological information, such as expected fracture density, orientation, length distribution, spacing and persistency. During this sequential modification, the DFN evolves in a trans-dimensional inversion space through adding and/or deleting fracture segments. This stochastic inversion algorithm requires a large number of thousands of model runs to converge, and thus using a fast and robust forward model is essential to keep the calculation efficient. To reach this goal, an upwind coupled finite difference method is employed

In NO3- contaminated aquifers containing reduced compounds like organic carbon or sulfides, denitrification is an intense process. Its characterization is of interest because NO3- consump-tion improves water quality and N2O production can cause emission of this greenhouse gas to the atmosphere. Spatial distribution of NO3- and N2 produced by denitrification in groundwa-ter (excess N2) reflects the NO3- input as well as cumulative denitrification during aquifer pas-sage. Reaction progress (RP) at a given location, i.e. the relative consumption by denitrifica-tion of the NO3- that had been leached to the aquifers, characterizes the stage of the denitrifi-cation process. RP can be derived from the ratio between accumulated gaseous denitrification products and initial NO3- concentrations. The amount and spatial distribution of reduced com-pounds within denitrifying aquifers is not well known. Recent findings from parallel investi-gations on in situ denitrification and reactive compounds suggests that single-well 15N tracertests might be suitable to characterize the stock of reduced compounds in aquifers (Konrad 2007). The overall objective of our studies is measure the spatial dynamics of denitrification within two sandy aquifers in northern Germany. This includes measurement of the actually occurring denitrification process. Moreover we want to determine the long-term denitrification potential which is governed by the stock of reactive material. Here we present a new approach for in situ-measurement of denitrification at monitoring wells using a combination of 15N-tracer push-pull experiments with in situ analysis of 15N-labled N2 and N2O using membrane inlet mass spectrometry (MIMS). We will present first results from a laboratory test with aquifer mesocosms using the MIMS method. In this test we supplemented aquifer material of two depths (2 and 7 m below surface) of a drinking water catchment in Northwest Germany with K15NO3 solution. After tracer application we

This report presents a method for interpreting geothermal tracertests. The method is based on the first temporal moment (mean residence time) of the tracer in the subsurface. The individual steps required to interpret a tracertest are reviewed and discussed. And an example tracertest directs the user through the interpretation method. An Excel spreadsheet application of the interpretation method is a companion document to this report.

To better understand flow processes, solute-transport processes, and ground-water/surface-water interactions on the Santa Clara River in Ventura County, California, a 24-hour fluorescent-dye tracer study was performed under steady-state flow conditions on a 28-mile reach of the river. The study reach includes perennial (uppermost and lowermost) subreaches and ephemeral subreaches of the lower Piru Creek and the middle Santa Clara River. Dye was injected at a site on Piru Creek, and fluorescence of river water was measured continuously at four sites and intermittently at two sites. Discharge measurements were also made at the six sites. The time of travel of the dye, peak dye concentration, and time-variance of time-concentration curves were obtained at each site. The long tails of the time-concentration curves are indicative of sources/sinks within the river, such as riffles and pools, or transient bank storage. A statistical analysis of the data indicates that, in general, the transport characteristics follow Fickian theory. These data and previously collected discharge data were used to calibrate a one-dimensional flow model (DAFLOW) and a solute-transport model (BLTM). DAFLOW solves a simplified form of the diffusion-wave equation and uses empirical relations between flow rate and cross-sectional area, and flow rate and channel width. BLTM uses the velocity data from DAFLOW and solves the advection-dispersion transport equation, including first-order decay. The simulations of dye transport indicated that (1) ground-water recharge explains the loss of dye mass in the middle, ephemeral, subreaches, and (2) ground-water recharge does not explain the loss of dye mass in the uppermost and lowermost, perennial, subreaches. This loss of mass was simulated using a linear decay term. The loss of mass in the perennial subreaches may be caused by a combination of photodecay or adsorption/desorption.

Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc. (Energy Systems) manages a closed hazardous waste disposal unit, Chestnut Ridge Security Pits (CRSP), in the form of two trenches and several auger-holes, located on top of the eastern portion of Chestnut Ridge at the Department of Energy (DOE) Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant in Tennessee. The groundwater monitoring system for the unit presently consists of a network of upgradient and downgradient monitor wells. To investigate the discharge of groundwater to springs and streams, Energy Systems, through Geraghty and Miller, Inc., conducted an initial dye-tracer study during the driest part of 1990. The dye was detected at some of the monitoring sites, but verification was necessary due to the proximity of some sites to extraneous dye sources. Based on the results of the initial study, Energy Systems recommended to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) in the 1990 Groundwater Quality Assessment Report (GWQAR) (HSW 1991) for the CRSP that a second dye-tracer study be conducted during the wet weather season. The procedures and materials were reviewed, and a field inspection of the monitoring sites was performed in the fall of 1991. The actual test commenced during the first week of February 1992 with a 4-week baseline monitoring period to determine the inherent variability of the emission spectra within the wavelength range characteristic of Rhodamine WT (RWT) and Fluorescent Brightener 28 (FB28) or similar naturally occuring compounds within in the aquifer. This is commonly referred as background in discussion of minimum detectable levels of dyes. On March 13, RWT and FB28 were injected; weekly monitoring began with the collection of the first set of detectors on March 19. The test was originally scheduled to conclude after 12 weeks but was extended to 18 weeks when no definitive results were obtained.

The interfacial area between immiscible fluids in porous media has been demonstrated to be a critical entity for improved understanding, characterization, and simulation of multiphase flow and mass transport in the subsurface. Two general methods are available for measuring interfacial areas for 3-D porous-media systems, high-resolution microtomographic imaging and interfacial partitioning tracertests (IPTT). Each method has their associated advantages and disadvantages. A few prior research efforts have conducted comparative analyses of the two methods, which have generally indicated disparities in measured values for natural geomedia. For these studies, however, interfacial areas were measured for separate samples with each method due to method restrictions. Thus, to date, there has been no comparative analysis conducted wherein the two measurement methods were applied to the exact same sample. To address this issue, trichloroethene-water interfacial areas were measured for a system comprising a well-sorted, natural sand (median grain diameter of 0.323 mm) using both X-ray microtomography and IPTTs. The microtomographic imaging was conducted on the same packed columns used to conduct the IPTTs. Columns were imaged before and after the IPTTs to evaluate potential impacts of the tracertests on fluid configuration. The interfacial areas measured using IPTT were 4-6 times larger than the microtomography results, which is consistent with previous work. This disparity was attributed to the inability of the microtomography method to characterize interfacial area associated with microscopic surface roughness. The results indicate that both methods provide useful measures of interfacial area as long as their limitations are recognized.

Nitrogen transformation mechanisms in the Upper Floridan Aquifer (UFA) are still poorly understood because of karst aquifer complexity and spatiotemporal variability in nitrate and carbon loading. Transformation rates have not been directly measured in the aquifer. This study quantifies nitrate-nitrogen transformation potential in the UFA using single well push-pull tracer injection (PPT) experiments combined with microbial characterization of extracted water via qPCR and RT-qPCR of selected nitrate reduction genes. Tracertests with chloride and nitrate ± carbon were executed in two wells representing anoxic and oxic geochemical end members in a spring groundwater contributing area. A significant increase in number of microbes with carbon addition suggests stimulated growth. Increases in the activities of denitrification genes (nirK and nirS) as measured by RT-qPCR were not observed. However, only microbes suspended in the tracer were obtained, ignoring effects of aquifer material biofilms. Increases in nrfA mRNA and ammonia concentrations were observed, supporting Dissimilatory Reduction of Nitrate to Ammonia (DNRA) as a reduction mechanism. In the oxic aquifer, zero order nitrate loss rates ranged from 32 to 89 nmol /L*hr with no added carbon and 90 to 240 nmol /L*hr with carbon. In the anoxic aquifer, rates ranged from 18 to 95 nmol /L*hr with no added carbon and 34 to 207 nmol /L*hr with carbon. These loss rates are low; 13 orders of magnitude less than the loads applied in the contributing area each year, however they do indicate that losses can occur in oxic and anoxic aquifers with and without carbon. These rates may include, ammonia adsorption, uptake, or denitrification in aquifer material biofilms. Rates with and without carbon addition for both aquifers were similar, suggesting aquifer redox state and carbon availability alone are insufficient to predict response to nutrient additions without characterization of microbial response. Surprisingly, these

River bank filtered water is an important component of the drinking water production in many areas of the world. In riverbank filtration, the removal of pathogens is an important task for the production of good quality drinking water. The hydrogeological factors and spatial changes in the water's microbiology during the transport from the river to the aquifer have important implications on the quality of the produced water. The goal of this study was to investigate riverbank infiltration effectiveness in arid environments such as that of El Paso, Texas. The hydrostratigraphic units and hydrogeologic conditions were characterized with lithologic samples obtained from all boreholes collected during the construction of twelve observation wells and one production well in the site, which were constructed near the artificial stream to provide geologic and hydrologic information. The shallow aquifer is composed of three unites: high hydraulic conductivity layers on the top and bottom, and low conductivity layer in the middle. In this study advective transport of microspheres was compared with a conservative tracer such as bromide. Bromide was injected into an observation well at the channel margin. Simultaneously, 1, 6 and 10 micron-diameter fluorescent microspheres equivalent to Giardia, Cryptosporidium, and bacteria sizes were injected into the stream bottom and two observation wells to assess the suitability of microspheres as abiotic analogs in future investigations involving the physical aspects of bacteria and protozoa transport behavior. The 17.8 day-tracertest provided valuable results that are relevant to the transport of pathogens through the subsurface under riverbank filtration conditions. The 1 micron-size microspheres were abundant in the pumping and observation wells and showed multiple peaks similar to the bromide results. Microspheres from the three injection sites had distinctly different transport paths and rates. The 6 and 10 micron-size microspheres

Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc. (Energy Systems) manages a closed hazardous waste disposal unit, Chestnut Ridge Security Pits (CRSP), in the form of two trenches and several auger-holes, located on top of the eastern portion of Chestnut Ridge at the Department of Energy (DOE) Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant in Tennessee. The groundwater monitoring system for the unit presently consists of a network of upgradient and downgradient monitor wells. To investigate the discharge of groundwater to springs and streams. An initial dye-tracer study was conducted during the driest part of 1990. The dye was detected at some of the monitoring sites, but verification was necessary due to the proximity of some sites to extraneous dye sources. A second dye-tracer was conducted during the wet weather season. The actual test commenced during the first week of February 1992 with a 4-week baseline monitoring period to determine the inherent variability of the emission spectra within the wavelength range characteristic of Rhodamine WT (RWT) and Fluorescent Brightener 28 (FB28) or similar naturally occuring compounds within in the aquifer. This is commonly referred as background in discussion of minimum detectable levels of dyes. Because two monitoring stations produced dye/optical brightener emission spectra during the baseline period, no results could be characterized on a quantitative or qualitative basis as positively indicating the detection of RWT or FB28 at these monitoring locations. The remaining monitoring produced no results which could be positively characterized as a detection of RWT or FB28. At no time was a characteristic dye spectrum that could be resolved from the background levels or interfering peaks recorded for any sample, nor could any of the results be qualitatively characterized as dye detection.

transport parameters. (4) Comparisons of sorption parameter estimates for a reactive solute tracer (lithium ion) derived from the C-wells field tracertests and laboratory tests using C-wells core samples. (5) Sorption parameter estimates for lithium ion derived from laboratory tests using alluvium samples from ATC well NC-EWDP-19D. These estimates will allow a comparison of laboratory- and field-derived sorption parameters to be made in saturated alluvium if cross-holetracertests are conducted at the ATC.

colloid transport parameters. (4) Comparisons of sorption parameter estimates for a reactive solute tracer (lithium ion) derived from both the C-wells field tracertests and laboratory tests using C-wells core samples. (5) Sorption parameter estimates for lithium ion derived from laboratory tests using alluvium samples from NC-EWDP-19D1 (one of the wells at the ATC) so that a comparison of laboratory- and field-derived sorption parameters can be made in saturated alluvium if cross-holetracertests are conducted at the ATC.

Air-injection and tracertesting were conducted in the upper Tiva Canyon, Bow Ridge Fault, and upper Paintbrush contact alcoves in the Exploratory Studies Facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, from August 1994 to July 1991. The study was conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy.

Information about the times of thermal breakthrough and subsequent rates of thermal drawdown in enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) is necessary for reservoir management, designing fracture stimulation and well drilling programs, and forecasting economic return. Thermal breakthrough in heterogeneous porous media can be estimated using conservative tracers and assumptions about heat transfer rates; however, tracers that undergo temperature-dependent changes can provide more detailed information about the thermal profile along the flow path through the reservoir. To be effectively applied, the thermal reaction rates of such temperature sensitive traces must be well characterized for the range of conditions that exist in geothermal systems. Reactive tracers proposed in the literature include benzoic and carboxylic acids (Adams) and organic esters and amides (Robinson et al.); however, the practical temperature range over which these tracers can be applied (100-275°C) is somewhat limited. Further, for organic esters and amides, little is known about their sorption to the reservoir matrix and how such reactions impact data interpretation. Another approach involves tracers where the reference condition is internal to the tracer itself. Two examples are: 1) racemization of polymeric amino acids, and 2) mineral thermoluminescence. In these cases internal ratios of states are measured rather than extents of degradation and mass loss. Racemization of poly-L-lactic acid (for example) is temperature sensitive and therefore can be used as a temperature-recording tracer depending on the rates of racemization and stability of the amino acids. Heat-induced quenching of thermoluminescence of pre-irradiated LiF can also be used. To protect the tracers from alterations (extraneous reactions, dissolution) in geothermal environments we are encapsulating the tracers in core-shell colloidal structures that will subsequently be tested for their ability to be transported and to protect the

Groundwater in karst environments tends to have difficulties to distinguish multiple flows if several sources of water are present. Skaistkalne vicinity faces with such situation where old groundwater, fresh groundwater and inflow from river Iecava occurs. Attempts were made to distinguish groundwater residence time of multiple components of water applying CFC and tritium dating techniques supplied by tracertest and numerical model of study area. Study area covers territory between two rivers Iecava and Memele with water level difference of 7 meters and horizontal distance of 2.2 kilometres between both. Study area consists of karst affected Devonian gypsum and carbonaceous rocks covered by Quaternary low to high permeable deposits. Confined groundwater at depth of 10-25 meters where analysed by CFC's and tritium. At this depth groundwater exhibits anoxic reducing environment that has caused degradation of CFC's at similar degree in all samples. Taking it into account, mean residence time based on CFC piston flow model is 22 - 42 years and 28 - 34 years based on binary mixing model. Tritium results show signs of incensement of groundwater residence time towards discharge area. CFC combined with tritium proved increased vertical velocity in middle part between the rivers likely caused by hydrogeological window in Quaternary deposits created by karst processes. Numerical model (Delina et al. 2012) was applied and calculations yielded groundwater flow velocity rate at 0.3 - 1 m/day in area between the rivers. Investigation of CFC data resulted in possible groundwater flow rate of at a minimum of 0.2 m/day although it's not applicable to all sampled wells due to specific hydrogeological conditions. Tracertest was made between the rivers in order to distinguish main water flow paths and flow velocity. Results showed that very high permeable conduits connect rivers and karst lakes with velocity rates of 800 - 1300 m/day. Complex investigation leads to conclude that

A study was conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of the geohydrology of the dolomite bedrock at a waste-disposal site near Byron, Illinois. The study was designed to identify and characterize the flow pathways through the bedrock aquifer beneath the site. The geologic units of concern at the site are the Glenwood Formation of the Ancell Group, and the Platteville and Galena Groups. These deposits compose the Galena-Platteville aquifer and the underlying Harmony Hill Shale semiconfining unit. The Galena-Platteville aquifer is an unconfined aquifer. Geophysical logging, water levels, and aquifer-test data indicate the presence of interconnected, hydraulically active fractures in the middle of the Galena-Platteville aquifer (the upper flow pathway), and a second set of hydraulically active fractures (the lower flow pathway). The lower flow pathway may be present through much of the site. Few hydraulically active fractures are present in the upper part of the aquifer near the center of the site, but appear to be more numerous in the upper part of the aquifer in the western and northeastern parts of the site. Water-level data obtained during the tracertest indicate that pumping effects were present near the pumped wells. Pumping effects may have been present at several wells located along directions of identified fracture orientation from the pumped well. The upper part of the aquifer did not appear to be hydraulically well connected to the flow pathways supplying water to the pumped well. Large background changes in water levels obscured the effects of pumping and prevented calculation of aquifer properties. The velocity of the bromide tracer through the lower flow pathway under the hydraulic gradient resulting from the pumping was about 152 feet per day. Solution of the Darcy velocity equation results in a calculated effective porosity for this interval of 3.5 percent, indicating hydraulic interconnection between the

Diffuse NO3 emissions derived from agricultural N surpluses are the main cause of NO3 pollution of aquifers and open water bodies. Denitrification is the key process for the attenuation of this anthropogenic NO3 in groundwater. Knowledge about the spatial variability denitrification rates in nitrate-contaminated aquifers is crucial to predict the development of groundwater quality. However, the spatial distribution and intensity of denitrification in aquifers is difficult to predict. But precisely this knowledge is important for an effective implementation of measures for the reduction of agricultural N-surpluses to gain a good chemical status of groundwater bodies. Push-pull tests have proven to be a relatively low-cost instrument to obtain quantitative information about aquifer properties and microbial activities in aquifers. These tests have been already successfully used for the measurement of in situ denitrification rates (Dr(in situ); Well and Myrold, 2002;Konrad, 2007). We conducted 28 push-pull tracertests in the Großen Kneten (GKA) and the Furberger Feld aquifer (FFA), two Pleistocene sandy aquifers in Lower Saxony (Germany) to measure Dr(in situ) and to derive an estimate on the stock of reactive compounds. In the deeper NO3-free zone of the aquifer, Dr(in situ) was relatively low despite the high abundance of reductants. Our aim was to check whether pre-conditioning by repeated NO3-injections would stimulate indigenous denitrifiers and thus lead to increased reduction rates of NO3 corresponding to the stock of reductants. Pre-conditioning by the injection of the electron acceptor NO3 prior to subsequent push-pull tracertests with 15N labelled NO3 was performed at 4 depths in the NO3-free groundwater zone in the Fuhrberger Feld aquifer. We compared unconditioned and pre-conditioned in situ denitrification rates with laboratory denitrification rates measured during one year laboratory incubations with corresponding aquifer material (Dr(365)). Our

Processes associated with aquifer restoration subsequent to cessation of treated-sewage loading in a sand and gravel aquifer are being investigated at the USGS Toxic Substances Hydrology Site on Cape Cod, MA. Restoration has been slow because of significant oxygen depletion resulting from biogeochemical processes associated with residual sorbed pools of organic carbon, ammonium, and reduced metals in the aquifer. The in situ interaction of the physical, chemical, and biological processes governing oxygen consumption was examined by using a natural-gradient tracertest in fall 2001, 6 years after sewage disposal had been discontinued. Ground water with a high dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration was withdrawn from an uncontaminated zone of the aquifer and re-injected with a conservative tracer, bromide, into an anoxic zone directly below a former sewage-effluent disposal bed where Fe and sulfide concentrations were below detection and the DO was less than 5 uM. An injection with negligible ammonium, a nitrate concentration of 22 uM, and DO of approximately 260 uM was maintained at approximately 15 L/hr for a period of 75 days. An array of multi-level samplers (MLS), placed at distances ranging from 1 to 7 m down-gradient from the injection well, was sampled prior to and throughout the 75-day injection, and during a 25-day period after the injection. Water samples from the MLS were analyzed for DO and a variety of aqueous constituents. The DO decreased from approximately 260 uM to 210 uM over 7 m of transport, indicating the presence of rate-limited oxygen consumption. An increase in nitrate from 22 to approximately 36 uM indicated the presence of rate-limited ammonium oxidation. However, this ammonium oxidation was not sufficient to account for all of the DO consumption. Further characterization of these processes was accomplished by use of PHREEQC, a one-dimensional, geochemical reactive transport model. The 1D model is based on an ion association model for aqueous

A field demonstration of in situ vitrification (ISV) was completed in May 1991, and produced approximately 12 Mg of melted earthen materials containing 12.7 mCi of radioactivity within 500 g of sludge in amodel of an old seepage trench waste disposal unit. Past waste disposal operations at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have left several contaminated seepage sites. In planning for remediation of such sites, ISV technology has been identified as a leading candidate because of the high risks associated with any retrieval option and because of the usual high quality of vitreous waste form. Major isotopes placed in the test trench were {sup 137}Cs and {sup 90}Sr, with lesser amounts of {sup 6O}Co, {sup 241}Am, and {sup 239,240}Pu. A total of 29 MWh of electrical power was delivered to the ground over a 5-day period producing a melt depth of 8.5 ft. During melting, 2.4% of the {sup 137}Cs volatilized from the melt into an off-gas containment hood and was captured quantitatively on a high efficiency particulate air filter. No volatilization of {sup 90}Sr, {sup 241}Am, or {sup 239,240}Pu was detected and > 99.993% retention of these isotopes in the melt was estimated. The use of added rare earth tracers (Ce, La, and Nd), as surrogates for transuranic isotopes, led to estimated melt retentions of >99.9995% during the test. The molten material, composed of the native soil and dolomitic limestone used for filling the test trench, reached a processing temperature of 1500{degrees}C. Standardized leaching procedures using Product Consistency Testing indicated that the ISV product has excellent characteristics relative to other vitreous nuclear waste forms.

A field demonstration of in situ vitrification (ISV) was completed in May 1991, and produced approximately 12 Mg of melted earthen materials containing 12.7 mCi of radioactivity within 500 g of sludge in amodel of an old seepage trench waste disposal unit. Past waste disposal operations at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have left several contaminated seepage sites. In planning for remediation of such sites, ISV technology has been identified as a leading candidate because of the high risks associated with any retrieval option and because of the usual high quality of vitreous waste form. Major isotopes placed in the test trench were [sup 137]Cs and [sup 90]Sr, with lesser amounts of [sup 6O]Co, [sup 241]Am, and [sup 239,240]Pu. A total of 29 MWh of electrical power was delivered to the ground over a 5-day period producing a melt depth of 8.5 ft. During melting, 2.4% of the [sup 137]Cs volatilized from the melt into an off-gas containment hood and was captured quantitatively on a high efficiency particulate air filter. No volatilization of [sup 90]Sr, [sup 241]Am, or [sup 239,240]Pu was detected and > 99.993% retention of these isotopes in the melt was estimated. The use of added rare earth tracers (Ce, La, and Nd), as surrogates for transuranic isotopes, led to estimated melt retentions of >99.9995% during the test. The molten material, composed of the native soil and dolomitic limestone used for filling the test trench, reached a processing temperature of 1500[degrees]C. Standardized leaching procedures using Product Consistency Testing indicated that the ISV product has excellent characteristics relative to other vitreous nuclear waste forms.

Simultaneous dynamic fluorescent imaging of a suitable untargeted tracer in conjunction with any molecular targeted fluorescent agent has been shown to be a powerful approach for quantifying cancer-specific cell surface receptors in vivo in the presence of non-specific uptake and tracer delivery variability. The identification of a "suitable" untargeted tracer (i.e., one having equivalent plasma and tissue delivery pharmacokinetics to the targeted tracer) for every targeted tracer, however, may not always be feasible or could require extensive testing. This work presents a "deconvolution" approach capable of correcting for plasma and tissue-delivery pharmacokinetic differences between tracers by quantifying dynamic differences in targeted and untargeted tracer uptake in a receptor-free tissue (one devoid of targeted molecular species) and correcting uptake in all other tissues accordingly. This deconvolution correction approach is evaluated in theoretical models and explored in an in vivo mouse xenograft model of human glioma. In the animal experiments, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR: a receptor known to be overexpressed in the investigated glioma cell line) was targeted using a fluorescent tracer with very different plasma pharmacokinetics than a second untargeted fluorescent tracer. Without correcting for these differences, the dual-tracer approach yielded substantially higher estimations of EGFR concentration in all tissues than expected; however, deconvolution correction was able to produce estimates that matched ex vivo validation.

We have tested some relations for star formation rates used in extragalactic studies for regions within the Galaxy. In nearby molecular clouds, where the initial mass function is not fully sampled, the dust emission at 24 {mu}m greatly underestimates star formation rates (by a factor of 100 on average) when compared to star formation rates determined from counting young stellar objects. The total infrared emission does no better. In contrast, the total far-infrared method agrees within a factor of two on average with star formation rates based on radio continuum emission for massive, dense clumps that are forming enough massive stars to have L{sub TIR} exceed 10{sup 4.5} L{sub Sun }. The total infrared and 24 {mu}m also agree well with each other for both nearby, low-mass star-forming regions and the massive, dense clump regions.

The present invention is a biological tracer method for characterizing the movement of a material through a medium, comprising the steps of: introducing a biological tracer comprising a microorganism having ice nucleating activity into a medium; collecting at least one sample of the medium from a point removed from the introduction point; and analyzing the sample for the presence of the biological tracer. The present invention is also a method for using a biological tracer as a label for material identification by introducing a biological tracer having ice nucleating activity into a material, collecting a sample of a portion of the labelled material and analyzing the sample for the presence of the biological tracer.

The present invention is a biological tracer method for characterizing the movement of a material through a medium, comprising the steps of: introducing a biological tracer comprising a microorganism having ice nucleating activity into a medium; collecting at least one sample of the medium from a point removed from the introduction point; and analyzing the sample for the presence of the biological tracer. The present invention is also a method for using a biological tracer as a label for material identification by introducing a biological tracer having ice nucleating activity into a material, collecting a sample of a portion of the labelled material and analyzing the sample for the presence of the biological tracer. 2 figs.

deposited on stream beds, the fine sediments would have an increasing downstream time to receive radionuclide fallout. Results to date showed that Pbx-210 activities of fine bed and suspended sediments were usually below detectable levels or with large uncertainty bounds, confirming that they come mainly from fresh rocks but making difficult the hypotheses testing. A relevant decrease in Pbx-210 activity was observed in suspended sediments during summer 2013, confirming the temporal accumulation of FRN on badland regoliths and the subsequent depletion of FRN-rich horizons, along with a significant connectivity of sediment. Shorter-lived Be-7 activity was detectable only on badland regoliths and suspended sediments, with activities increasing downstream; this cannot be attributed to the accumulation of FRN in old sediments, because of the short life of Be-7. Instead, fine bed sediments might be brought into suspension by raindrop impacts, and most of the FRN content of these raindrops would be flushed with the suspended sediment, in partial conflict with the hypothesis supporting the second index.

. Indeed, long residence time of stream bed sediments allowing FRN accumulation is suggested by (i) fine in-stream sediment activities higher than those measured at their sources and (ii) increasing activities downstream. Results showed a more intricate behaviour than expected. Pbx-210 activities of fine bed and suspended sediments were usually below detectable levels or had large uncertainty bounds, confirming that they come mainly from fresh rocks but making difficult the hypotheses testing. Fine sediments on the stream beds had low activities in contradiction with hypothesis 2. Activities of in-stream suspended sediments partly followed hypothesis 1 but they decreased with the increasing capacity of runoff events to mobilise low-activity sediments from the stream bed. Shorter-lived Be-7 activity was detectable only on badland regoliths and suspended sediments, with activities increasing downstream; this cannot be attributed to the accumulation of FRN in old sediments, because of the short life of Be-7. Instead, fine bed sediments might be brought into suspension by raindrop impacts, and most of the FRN content of these raindrops would be flushed with the suspended sediment, impeding its accumulation on bed sediments and disabling hypothesis 2. Overall, several lines of evidence suggest that FRNs were quickly sequestered by the more dynamic sediment particles, preventing its accumulation on coarser sediment particles and surfaces exposed to overland or stream flow.

A tracer-elution experiment was conducted in a 9-m-thick alluvial sand aquifer at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, Denver, Colorado, within an extensive 1,1,1-trichloroethene and trichloroethene plume. The forced-gradient flow field was controlled by an injection well and an extraction well separated by 8.4 m and aligned in the direction of the natural-gradient flow. Upon extraction, the contaminant-laden water was treated by air stripping and reinjected into the injection well. Iodide tracer was added to the injection flow during the initial 27.5 h of the experiment. Tracer transport and organic contaminant elution were monitored by four 0.15-m-screened drive points and a fully penetrating monitoring well. Relative permeabilities, dispersivities and retardation factors were estimated from tracer breakthrough and contaminant elution curves by the moment method and by curve-fitting with an advection-dispersion model. Tracer transport through the four strata sampled by the drive points indicated a permeability variation of three orders of magnitude. Contaminant elution was not observed in the lowest-permeability stratum monitored during the experiment. In all monitored strata, contaminant elution was controlled primarily by permeability effects on water flow and exhibited minimal retardation or desorption effects. The fully penetrating monitoring well exhibited a tracer response primarily from the more permeable strata with the addition of tracer from the less permeable strata producing an increased breakthrough spreading. This increased spreading or dispersion was reflected in a higher longitudinal dispersivity estimate (1.2 m assuming a homogeneous aquifer) than dispersivity estimates from the drive-point sampler tracer curves (ranging from 5 to 21 cm). Contaminant elution curves from the fully penetrating monitoring well exhibited an initial response primarily from the more permeable strata (rapid elution of contaminants) and provided no insight into the elution

Thermal-lifetime prediction is a traditional endeavour of inter-well tracertests conducted in geothermal reservoirs. Early tracertest signals (detectable within the first few years of operation) are expected to correlate with late-time production temperature evolutions ('thermal breakthrough', supposed to not occur before some decades of operation) of a geothermal reservoir. Whenever a geothermal reservoir can be described as a single-fracture system, its thermal lifetime will, ideally, be determined by two parameters (say, fracture aperture and porosity), whose inversion from conservative-tracertest signals is straightforward and non-ambiguous (provided that the tracertests, and their interpretation, are performed in accordance to the rules of the art). However, as soon as only 'few more' fractures are considered, this clear-cut correlation is broken. A given geothermal reservoir can simultaneously feature a single-fracture behaviour, in terms of heat transport, and a multiple-fracture behaviour, in terms of solute tracer transport (or vice-versa), whose effective values of fracture apertures, spacings, and porosities are essentially uncorrelated between heat and solute tracers. Solute transport parameters derived from conservative-tracertests will no longer characterize the heat transport processes (and thus temperature evolutions) taking place in the same reservoir. Parameters determining its thermal lifetime will remain 'invisible' to conservative tracers in inter-well tests. We demonstrate this issue at the example of a five-fracture system, representing a deep-geothermal reservoir, with well-doublet placement inducing fluid flow 'obliquely' to the fractures. Thermal breakthrough in this system is found to strongly depend on fracture apertures, whereas conservative-solute tracer signals from inter-well tests in the same system do not show a clear-cut correlation with fracture apertures. Only by using thermosensitive substances as tracers, a reliable

Positron emission tomography (PET) can image a wide variety of functional and physiological parameters in vivo using different radiotracers. As more is learned about the molecular basis for disease and treatment, the potential value of molecular imaging for characterizing and monitoring disease status has increased. Characterizing multiple aspects of tumor physiology by imaging multiple PET tracers in a single patient provides additional complementary information, and there is a significant body of literature supporting the potential value of multi-tracer PET imaging in oncology. However, imaging multiple PET tracers in a single patient presents a number of challenges. A number of techniques are under development for rapidly imaging multiple PET tracers in a single scan, where signal-recovery processing algorithms are employed to recover various imaging endpoints for each tracer. Dynamic imaging is generally used with tracer injections staggered in time, and kinetic constraints are utilized to estimate each tracers' contribution to the multi-tracer imaging signal. This article summarizes past and ongoing work in multi-tracer PET tumor imaging, and then organizes and describes the main algorithmic approaches for achieving multi-tracer PET signal-recovery. While significant advances have been made, the complexity of the approach necessitates protocol design, optimization, and testing for each particular tracer combination and application. Rapid multi-tracer PET techniques have great potential for both research and clinical cancer imaging applications, and continued research in this area is warranted. PMID:24312149

An integrated interpretation of field experimental cross-hole radar, tracer, and hydraulic data demonstrates the value of combining time-lapse geophysical monitoring with conventional hydrologic measurements for improved characterization of a fractured-rock aquifer. Time-lapse difference-attenuation radar tomography was conducted during saline tracer experiments at the US Geological Survey Fractured Rock Hydrology Research Site near Mirror Lake, Grafton County, New Hampshire, USA. The presence of electrically conductive saline tracer effectively illuminates permeable fractures or pathways for geophysical imaging. The geophysical results guide the construction of three-dimensional numerical models of ground-water flow and solute transport. In an effort to explore alternative explanations for the tracer and tomographic data, a suite of conceptual models involving heterogeneous hydraulic conductivity fields and rate-limited mass transfer are considered. Calibration data include tracer concentrations, the arrival time of peak concentration at the outlet, and steady-state hydraulic head. Results from the coupled inversion procedure suggest that much of the tracer mass migrated outside the three tomographic image planes, and that solute is likely transported by two pathways through the system. This work provides basic and site-specific insights into the control of permeability heterogeneity on ground-water flow and solute transport in fractured rock. ?? Springer-Verlag 2004.

We consider the dispersion and elution of colloids and dissolved nonsorbing tracers within saturated heterogeneous porous media. Since flow path geometry in natural systems is often ill-characterized macroscopic (mean) flow rates and dispersion tensors are utilized in order to account for the sub-model scale microscopic fluctuations in media structure (and the consequent hydrodynamic profile). Even for tracer migration and dispersal this issue is far from settled. Here we consider how colloid and tracer migration phenomena can be treated consistently. Theoretical calculations for model flow geometries yield two quantitative predictions for the transport of free (not yet captured) colloids with reference to a non-sorbing dissolved tracer within the same medium: the average migration velocity of the free colloids is higher than that of the tracer; and that the ratio of the equivalent hydrodynamic dispersion rates of colloids and tracer is dependent only upon properties of the colloids and the porous medium, it is independent of pathlengths and fluid flux, once length scales are large enough. The first of these is well known, since even in simple flow paths free colloids must stay more centre stream. The second, if validated suggests how solute and colloid dispersion may be dealt with consistently in macroscopic migration models. This is crucial since dispersion is usually ill-characterized and unaddressed by the experimental literature. In this paper we present evidence based upon an existing Drigg field injection test for the validity of these predictions. We show that starting from experimental data the fitted dispersion rates of both colloids and non-sorbing tracers increase with the measured elution rates (obeying slightly different rules for tracers and colloids); and that the ratio of colloid and nonsorbing tracer elution rates, and the ratio of colloid and nonsorbing tracer dispersion rates may be dependent upon properties of the colloids and the medium (not

The self-purifying capacity of aquifers strongly depends on the attenuation of waterborne contaminants, i.e., irreversible loss of contaminant mass on a given scale as a result of coupled transport and transformation processes. A general formulation of tracer attenuation in groundwater is presented. Basic sensitivities of attenuation to macrodispersion and retention are illustrated for a few typical retention mechanisms. Tracer recovery is suggested as an experimental proxy for attenuation. Unique experimental data of tracer recovery in crystalline rock compare favorably with the theoretical model that is based on diffusion-controlled retention. Non-Fickian hydrodynamic transport has potentially a large impact on field-scale attenuation of dissolved contaminants.

Conservative tracer experiments can provide information useful for characterizing various subsurface transport properties. This study examines the effectiveness of three different types of transport observations for sensitivity analysis and parameter estimation of a three-dimensional site-specific groundwater flow and transport model: conservative tracer breakthrough curves (BTCs), first temporal moments of BTCs (m1), and tracer cumulative mass discharge (Md) through control planes combined with hydraulic head observations (h). High-resolution data obtained from a 410-day controlled field experiment at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California (USA), have been used. In this experiment, bromide was injected to create two adjacent plumes monitored at six different transects (perpendicular to groundwater flow) with a total of 162 monitoring wells. A total of 133 different observations of transient hydraulic head, 1,158 of BTC concentration, 23 of first moment, and 36 of mass discharge were used for sensitivity analysis and parameter estimation of nine flow and transport parameters. The importance of each group of transport observations in estimating these parameters was evaluated using sensitivity analysis, and five out of nine parameters were calibrated against these data. Results showed the advantages of using temporal moment of conservative tracer BTCs and mass discharge as observations for inverse modeling. PMID:24672283

Perfluorocarbon tracer technology developments at Brookhaven is described, including the latest identified as well as available PFTs and air sampling and analysis tools, to demonstrate their utility in a number of different atmospheric tracer experiments as well as in other applications, and to provide food-for-thought on new ways in which the PFTs can be applied in other research objectives. All of the important tools are described, but emphasis is given to the latest developments in the technology.

The advection-dispersion equation (ADE) fails to describe non-Fickian solute transport breakthrough curves (BTCs) in saturated porous media in both laboratory and field experiments, necessitating the use of other models. The dual-domain mass transfer (DDMT) model partitions the total porosity into mobile and less-mobile domains with an exchange of mass between the two domains, and this model can reproduce better fits to BTCs in many systems than ADE-based models. However, direct experimental estimation of DDMT model parameters remains elusive and model parameters are often calculated a posteriori by an optimization procedure. Here, we investigate the use of geophysical tools (direct-current resistivity, nuclear magnetic resonance, and complex conductivity) to estimate these model parameters directly. We use two different samples of the zeolite clinoptilolite, a material shown to demonstrate solute mass transfer due to a significant internal porosity, and provide the first evidence that direct-current electrical methods can track solute movement into and out of a less-mobile pore space in controlled laboratory experiments. We quantify the effects of assuming single-rate DDMT for multirate mass transfer systems. We analyze pore structures using material characterization methods (mercury porosimetry, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray computer tomography), and compare these observations to geophysical measurements. Nuclear magnetic resonance in conjunction with direct-current resistivity measurements can constrain mobile and less-mobile porosities, but complex conductivity may have little value in relation to mass transfer despite the hypothesis that mass transfer and complex conductivity lengths scales are related. Finally, we conduct a geoelectrical monitored tracertest at the Macrodispersion Experiment (MADE) site in Columbus, MS. We relate hydraulic and electrical conductivity measurements to generate a 3D hydraulic conductivity field, and compare to

A pilot-scale study was conducted by the U.S. Army National Guard (USANG) at the Massachusetts Military Reservation (MMR) on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to assess the use of a hydraulic-fracturing method to create vertical, permeable walls of zero-valent iron to passively remediate ground water contaminated with chlorinated solvents. The study was conducted near the source area of the Chemical Spill-10 (CS-10) plume, a plume containing chlorinated solvents that underlies the MMR. Ground-water contamination near the source area extends from about 24 m (meters) to 35 m below land surface. The USANG designed two reactive-iron walls to be 12 m long and positioned 24 to 37 m below land surface to intersect and remediate part of the CS-10 plume.Because iron, as an electrical conductor, absorbs electromagnetic energy, the US Geological Survey used a cross-hole common-depth, radar scanning method to assess the continuity and to estimate the lateral and vertical extent of the two reactive-iron walls. The cross-hole radar surveys were conducted in boreholes on opposite sides of the iron injection zones using electric-dipole antennas with dominant center frequencies of 100 and 250 MHz. Significant decreases in the radar-pulse amplitudes observed in scans that traversed the injection zones were interpreted by comparing field data to results of two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain numerical models and laboratory-scale physical models.The numerical and physical models simulate a wall of perfectly conducting material embedded in saturated sand. Results from the numerical and physical models show that the amplitude of the radar pulse transmitted across the edge of a conductive wall is about 43 percent of the amplitude of a radar pulse transmitted across background material. The amplitude of a radar pulse transmitted through a hole in a conductive wall increases as the aperture of the hole increases. The modeling results indicate that holes with an aperture of less than 40

Engineered covers have been placed on top of buried/subsurface wastes to minimize water infiltration and therefore, release of hazardous contaminants. In order for the cover to protect the environment it must remain free of holes and breaches throughout its service life. Covers are subject to subsidence, erosion, animal intrusion, plant root infiltration, etc., all of which will affect the overall performance of the cover. The U.S. Department of Energy Environmental Management (DOE-EM) Program 2006 Accelerated Cleanup Plan is pushing for rapid closure of many of the DOE facilities. This will require a great number of new cover systems. Some of these new covers are expected to maintain their performance for periods of up to 1000 years. Long-term stewardship will require monitoring/verification of cover performance over the course of the designed lifetime. In addition, many existing covers are approaching the end of their design life and will need validation of current performance (if continued use is desired) or replacement (if degraded). The need for a reliable method of verification and long-term monitoring is readily apparent. Currently, failure is detected through monitoring wells downstream of the waste site. This is too late as the contaminants have already left the disposal area. The proposed approach is the use of gaseous Perfluorocarbon tracers (PFT) to verify and monitor cover performance. It is believed that PFTs will provide a technology that can verify a cover meets all performance objectives upon installation, be capable of predicting changes in cover performance and failure (defined as contaminants leaving the site) before it happens, and be cost-effective in supporting stewardship needs. The PFTs are injected beneath the cover and air samples taken above (either air samples or soil gas samples) at the top of the cover. The location, concentrations, and time of arrival of the tracer(s) provide a direct measure of cover performance. PFT technology can

A new tracer flow-test system has been developed for in situ characterization of geologic formations. This report describes two sets of test equipment: one portable and one for testing in deep formations. Equations are derived for in situ detector calibration, raw data reduction, and flow logging. Data analysis techniques are presented for computing porosity and permeability in unconfined isotropic media, and porosity, permeability and fracture characteristics in media with confined or unconfined two-dimensional flow. The effects of tracer pulse spreading due to divergence, dispersion, and porous formations are also included.

Geothermal logging, air and core-water chemistry sampling, air-injection testing, and tracertesting were done in the northern Ghost Dance Fault at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, from November 1996 to August 1998. The study was done by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy. The fault-testing drill room and test boreholes were located in the crystal-poor, middle nonlithophysal zone of the Topopah Spring Tuff, a tuff deposit of Miocene age. The drill room is located off the Yucca Mountain underground Exploratory Studies Facility at about 230 meters below ground surface. Borehole geothermal logging identified a temperature decrease of 0.1 degree Celsius near the Ghost Dance Fault. The temperature decrease could indicate movement of cooler air or water, or both, down the fault, or it may be due to drilling-induced evaporative or adiabatic cooling. In-situ pneumatic pressure monitoring indicated that barometric pressure changes were transmitted from the ground surface to depth through the Ghost Dance Fault. Values of carbon dioxide and delta carbon-13 from gas samples indicated that air from the underground drill room had penetrated the tuff, supporting the concept of a well-developed fracture system. Uncorrected carbon-14-age estimates from gas samples ranged from 2,400 to 4,500 years. Tritium levels in borehole core water indicated that the fault may have been a conduit for the transport of water from the ground surface to depth during the last 100 years.

Chemical characteristics of the actinides (Th, U, Np, Pu, Am) have been studied relative to nonradioactive chemical elements that have similar characteristics in an attempt to identify a group of actinide chemical analogues that are nonradioactive. In general, the chemistries of the actinides, especially U, Np, Pu, and Am, are very complex and attempts to identify a single chemical analogue for each oxidation state were not successful. However, the rationale for selecting a group of chemical analogues that would mimic the actinides as a group is provided. The categorization of possible chemical analogues (tracers) with similar chemical properties was based on the following criteria. Categorization was studied according.

Borehole - borehole tracertests are a hydrogeological method to characterize groundwater flow parameters. Breakthrough curves of colour tracers, injected in one borehole and measured in one or more observation wells downstream of the first, give exact but locally very limited information about groundwater flow direction and velocity. At heterogeneous subsurface conditions a large number of investigation wells and frequent sample drawing is necessary to assure recovery of the tracer, which makes the experiments very expensive. Yet, these experiments often fail or do not give sufficient information about the flow regime in the aquifer. Monitoring of salt tracers with geoelectrical methods gives an integral information about flow parameters which in most cases is a more useful information. Especially in deeper aquifers though, it is a problem to place a high number of electrodes close enough to the moving tracer to gain precise results. To assess the mentioned problems we carried out a combined geoelectrical salt and conventional colour tracertest. Our equipment for both tests was placed in direct push boreholes, which are a lot cheaper than groundwater wells, quickly installed and much less invasive. The boreholes were installed at 10 meters distance on a 120 m long profile, to form a control plane 25 meters downstream of the tracer injection. The injection took place in three different groundwater wells at a time, to provide for a good overview of the flow regime along the control plane. We show, how integral information from the geoelectrical tracertests can be used to design a refined borehole placement for a successful colour tracertest. Our results, quite different from groundwater modelling results, strongly support the necessity to carry out precise field tracertests for the investigation of groundwater flow parameters.

The Technical Report summarizes the results of the synthesis and microPET animal scanning of several compounds labeled with positron-emitting isotopes in normal, neonatal and kainic acid treated (seizure induced) rats as potential PET tracers to image the process of neurogenesis using positron emission tomography (PET). The tracerstested were 3'-deoxy-3'-[F-18]fluorothymidine ([F-18]FLT) and 5'-benzoyl-FTL, 1-(2'-deoxy-2'-[F-18]fluoro-B-D-arabinofuranosyl)-5-bromouracil (FBAU) and 3',5'-dibenzoyl-FBAU, N-[F-18]fluoroacetyl-D-glucosamine (FLAG) and tetraacetyl-FLAG, and L-[1-C-11]leucine.

Subsurface barriers are an extremely promising remediation option to many waste management problems. Gas phase tracers include perfluorocarbon tracers (PFT`s) and chlorofluorocarbon tracers (CFC`s). Both have been applied for leak detection in subsurface systems. The focus of this report is to describe the barrier verification tests conducted using PFT`s and analysis of the data from the tests. PFT verification tests have been performed on a simulated waste pit at the Hanford Geotechnical facility and on an actual waste pit at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The objective of these tests were to demonstrate the proof-of-concept that PFT technology can be used to determine if small breaches form in the barrier and for estimating the effectiveness of the barrier in preventing migration of the gas tracer to the monitoring wells. The subsurface barrier systems created at Hanford and BNL are described. The experimental results and the analysis of the data follow. Based on the findings of this study, conclusions are offered and suggestions for future work are presented.

An improved tracer particle is described comprising an ion exchange core having a polymer coating thereon, the coated ion exchange core having a reaction site capable of reacting with a compound containing an oxirane group, said coated ion exchange core having been treated with a compound containing an oxirane group to react with said coated ion exchange core causing an increase in mass of the tracer particle. Preferably, the ion exchange core is labelled with a radionuclide. These particles have improved characteristics including improved stability against leaching and improved handling properties. Such particles are useful in circulatory determinations involving the injection of the particles as a suspension in a physiologically acceptable carrier or medium into the circulatory system of animals.

An apparatus for the simultaneous measurement of two tracers, sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) and a perfluorocarbon compound, is introduced. The new instrument is a modification of a commercially available fast-response, continuous analyzer for single halogenated atmospheric tracer studies. A two-channel flow system was implemented consisting of an alumina cartridge in one channel and a glass beads cartridge of equal flow resistance in the second channel. The alumina passes only sulfur hexafluoride, while the glass beads pass both SF6 and the perfluoroarbon tracer. The SF6 is quantified directly from the electron capture detector (ECD) signal in the alumina channel, and the perfluorocarbon concentration is obtained from the difference of the ECD responses in the two channels. The dual-tracer analyzer is field portable for mobile operations or fixed-location monitoring, has a response time of 1.2 s, and has limits of detection of about 15 pptv for SF6 and 10 pptv for perfluoro-methylcyclohexane, which was the principal perfluorocarbon tracer used in this study. The present instrument configuration, which requires periodic purging of the adsorbent trap, can obtain continuous measurements for a 10-15-min segment in every half hour of operation. Dual-tracer data from a field demonstration test are presented.

Active thermal tracertesting is a technique to get information about the flow and transport properties of an aquifer. In this paper we propose an innovative methodology using active thermal tracers in a tomographic setup to reconstruct cross-well hydraulic conductivity profiles. This is facilitated by assuming that the propagation of the injected thermal tracer is mainly controlled by advection. To reduce the effects of density and viscosity changes and thermal diffusion, early-time diagnostics are used and specific travel times of the tracer breakthrough curves are extracted. These travel times are inverted with an eikonal solver using the staggered grid method to reduce constraints from the pre-defined grid geometry and to improve the resolution. Finally, non-reliable pixels are removed from the derived hydraulic conductivity tomograms. The method is applied to successfully reconstruct cross-well profiles as well as a 3-D block of a high-resolution fluvio-aeolian aquifer analog data set. Sensitivity analysis reveals a negligible role of the injection temperature, but more attention has to be drawn to other technical parameters such as the injection rate. This is investigated in more detail through model-based testing using diverse hydraulic and thermal conditions in order to delineate the feasible range of applications for the new tomographic approach.

The combined effects of advection and diffusion on the equilibrium spatial structure of a tracer whose spatial variation is maintained by a large-scale forcing are considered. Motivated by the lower stratosphere, the flow is taken to be large-scale, time-dependent, and purely horizontal but varying in the vertical, with the vertical shear much larger than horizontal velocity gradients. As a result, the ratio α between horizontal and vertical tracer scales is large. (For the lower stratospheric surf zone α has been shown to be about 250.) The diffusion parameterizes the mixing effects of small-scale processes.The three space dimensions and the large range between the forcing scale and the diffusive scale mean that direct numerical simulation would be prohibitively expensive for this problem. Instead, an ensemble approach is used that takes advantage of the separation between the large scale of the flow and the small scale of the tracer distribution. This approach, which has previously been used in theoretical investigations of two-dimensional flows, provides an efficient technique to derive statistical properties of the tracer distributions such as horizontal-wavenumber spectrum.First, the authors consider random-strain models in which the velocity gradient experienced by a fluid parcel is modeled by a random process. The results show the expected k-1 Batchelor spectrum at large scales, with a deviation from this form at a scale that is larger by a factor α than the diffusive scale found in the absence of vertical shear. This effect may be crudely captured by replacing the diffusivity κ by an “=uivalent diffusivity” α2κ, but the diffusive dissipation is then substantially overestimated, and the spectrum at large k is too steep. This may be attributed to the failure of the equivalent diffusivity to capture the variability of the vertical shear.The technique is then applied to lower-stratospheric velocity fields. For realistic values of the diffusivity κ

Dye-tracertests were done during 1985-92 to investigate the hydraulic connection between fractures in Pennsylvanian coal-bearing strata at a ridge-and-valley-wall site near Fishtrap Lake, Pike County, Ky. Fluorescent dye was injected into a core hole penetrating near-surface and mining- induced fractures near the crest of the ridge. The rate and direction of migration of dye in the subsurface were determined by measuring the relative concentration of dye in water samples collected from piezometers completed in conductive fracture zones and fractured coal beds at various stratigraphic horizons within the ridge. Dye-concentration data and water-level measurements for each piezometer were plotted as curves on dye- recovery hydrographs. The dye-recovery hydrographs were used to evaluate trends in the fluctuation of dye concentrations and hydraulic heads in order to identify geologic and hydrologic factors affecting the subsurface transport of dye. The principal factors affecting the transport of dye in the subsurface hydrologic system were determined to be (1) the distribution, interconnection, and hydraulic properties of fractures; (2) hydraulic-head conditions in the near-fracture zone at the time of dye injection; and (3) subsequent short- and long-term fluctuations in recharge to the hydrologic system. In most of the dye-tracertests, dye-recovery hydrographs are characterized by complex, multipeaked dye-concentration curves that are indicative of a splitting of dye flow as ground water moved through fractures. Intermittent dye pulses (distinct upward spikes in dye concentration) mark the arrivals of dye-labeled water to piezometers by way of discrete fracture-controlled flow paths that vary in length, complexity, and hydraulic conductivity. Dye injections made during relatively high- or increasing-head conditions resulted in rapid transport of dye (within several days or weeks) from near-surface fractures to piezometers. Injections made during relatively low- or

This is the final report of a three year research project on the use of tracers for reservoir characterization. The objective of this research was to develop advanced, innovative techniques for the description of reservoir characteristics using both single-well backflow and interwell tracertests. (1) The authors implemented and validated tracer modeling features in a compositional simulator (UTCOMP). (2) They developed and applied a new single well tracertest for estimating reservoir heterogeneity. (3) They developed and applied a new single well tracertest for estimating reservoir wettability in-situ. (4) They developed a new, simple and efficient method to analyze two well tracertests based upon type curve matching and illustrated its use with actual field tracer data. (5) They developed a new method for deriving an integrated reservoir description based upon combinatorial optimization schemes. (6) They developed a new, interwell tracertest for reservoir heterogeneity called vertical tracer profiling (VTP) and demonstrated its advantages over conventional interwell tracertesting. (7) They developed a simple and easy analytical method to estimate swept pore volume from interwell tracer data and showed both the theoretical basis for this method and its practical utility. (8) They made numerous enhancements to our compositional reservoir simulator such as including the full permeability tensor, adding faster solvers, improving its speed and robustness and making it easier to use (better I/0) for tracer simulation problems. (9) They applied the enhanced version of UTCOMP to the analysis of interwell tracer data using perfluorocarbons at Elks Hill Naval Petroleum Reserve. All of these accomplishments taken together have significantly improved the state of reservoir tracer technology and have demonstrated that it is a far more powerful and useful tool for quantitative reservoir characterization than previously realized or practiced by the industry.

A technique for measuring compressor flowrate through an operating natural-gas centrifugal compressor has been tested and found to have a precisions approaching {plus minus}1.5%. The technique employs constant-flow tracer dilution. Testing demonstrated that use of a critical-flow nozzle to inject a constant, known flow of tracer into a flowing natural-gas stream is feasible. Effects of potential pulsation on a tracer flow measurement appear to be eliminated by this technique. With experimental and operational streamlining, the constant-flow tracer dilution technique is capable of being used to measure the flowrate through operating centrifugal compressors with sufficient precisions and accuracy to allow compressor operating characteristics to be determined. This technique is especially useful in situations in which an orifice-flow measurement cannot be performed because of physical space limits or economic considerations.

Laboratory work on tracers to be used for C-Well tracertests is complete. Solubilities for fluorinated benzoic acids in J13 water were determined and the stability of these compounds to both degradation and sorption on ground tuff measured in batch and column tests.

The interpretation of transient tracer observations depends on difficult to obtain information on the evolution in time of the tracer boundary conditions and interior distributions. Recent studies have attempted to circumvent this problem by making use of a derived quantity, age, based on the simultaneous distribution of two complementary tracers, such as tritium and its daughter, helium 3. The age is defined with reference to the surface such that the boundary condition takes on a constant value of zero. The authors use a two-dimensional model to explore the circumstances under which such a combination of conservation equations for two complementary tracers can lead to a cancellation of the time derivative terms. An interesting aspect of this approach is that mixing can serve as a source or sink of tracer based age. The authors define an idealized ventilation age tracer that is conservative with respect to mixing, and they explore how its behavior compares with that of the tracer-based ages over a range of advective and diffusive parameters.

In this study, a proposed method for selecting a tracer for particle imaging velocimetry (PIV) measurement in electrohydrodynamics flows was developed. To begin with, several published studies were identified that exploit different tracers, such as oil smoke, cigarette smoke and titanium dioxide (TiO2). An assortment of tracers was then selected based on comparisons with conventional dimensionless numbers; Stokes number ( St), Archimedes number ( Ar) and electrical mobility ratio ( M). Subsequently, an experimental study for testingtracers was developed, which enabled the velocity profile of an ionic wind generated by a needle/ring configuration to be measured. Air velocity measurements carried out with a Pitot tube, considered as the reference measurements, were compared to PIV measurements for each tracer. In addition, the current-voltage curves and the evolution of the current during seeding were measured. All the experimental results show that TiO2, SiO2 microballoons and incense smoke are the ideal tracers in the series of tracers investigated.

A method and apparatus for measuring fluid flow in a duct is disclosed. The invention uses a novel high velocity tracer injector system, an optional insertable folding mixing fan for homogenizing the tracer within the duct bulk fluid flow, and a perforated hose sampling system. A preferred embodiment uses CO.sub.2 as a tracer gas for measuring air flow in commercial and/or residential ducts. In extant commercial buildings, ducts not readily accessible by hanging ceilings may be drilled with readily plugged small diameter holes to allow for injection, optional mixing where desired using a novel insertable foldable mixing fan, and sampling hose.

A new in situ method for directly measuring the gas collection efficiency in the region around a gas extraction well was developed. Thirteen tests were conducted by injecting a small volume of gas tracer sequentially at different locations in the landfill cell, and the gas tracer mass collected from each test was used to assess the collection efficiency at each injection point. For 11 tests the gas collection was excellent, always exceeding 70% with seven tests showing a collection efficiency exceeding 90%. For one test the gas collection efficiency was 8±6%. Here, the poor efficiency was associated with a water-laden refuse or remnant daily cover soil located between the point of tracer injection and the extraction well. The utility of in situ gas tracertests for quantifying landfill gas capture at particular locations within a landfill cell was demonstrated. While there are certainly limitations to this technology, this method may be a valuable tool to help answer questions related to landfill gas collection efficiency and gas flow within landfills. Quantitative data from tracertests may help assess the utility and cost-effectiveness of alternative cover systems, well designs and landfill gas collection management practices. PMID:26148643

Gravel aquifers act as important potable water sources in central western Europe, yet they are subject to numerous contamination pressures. Compositional and textural heterogeneity makes protection zone delineation around groundwater supplies in these units challenging; artificial tracertesting aids characterization. This paper reappraises previous tracertest results in light of new geological and microbiological data. Comparative passive gradient testing, using a fluorescent solute (Uranine), virus (H40/1 bacteriophage), and comparably sized bacterial tracers and , was used to investigate a calcareous gravel aquifer's ability to remove microbiological contaminants at a test site near Munich, Germany. Test results revealed relative recoveries could exceed those of H40/1 at monitoring wells, 10 m and 20 m from an injection well, by almost four times; recoveries varied by a factor of up to three between wells. Application of filtration theory suggested greater attenuation of H40/1 relative to similarly charged occurred due to differences in microorganism size, while estimated collision efficiencies appeared comparable. By contrast, more positively charged experienced greater attenuation at one monitoring point, while lower attenuation rates at the second location indicated the influence of geochemical heterogeneity. Test findings proved consistent with observations from nearby fresh outcrops that suggested thin open framework gravel beds dominated mass transport in the aquifer, while discrete intervals containing stained clasts reflect localized geochemical heterogeneity. Study results highlight the utility of reconciling outcrop observations with artificial tracertest responses, using microbiological tracers with well-defined properties, to characterize aquifer heterogeneity. PMID:26436262

Direct measurements of sewer leakage with continuous dosing of tracers are often considered too imprecise for practical applications. However, no mathematical framework for data analysis is reported in literature. In this paper, we present an improved experimental design and data analysis procedure together with a comprehensive framework for uncertainty assessment. Test runs in a 700 m-long watertight sewer showed no significant bias and a very high precision of the methodology. The standard error in the results was assessed to 2.6% of the labeled flow with a simplified model. It could be reduced to 1.2% when a dynamic data analysis procedure was applied. The major error contribution was caused by transient transport phenomena, which suggests that careful choosing of the experimental time is more important than the choice of a very specific tracer substance. Although the method is not intended to replace traditional CCTV inspections, it can provide complementary information for rational rehabilitation planning. PMID:17363025

Majors advances have been made during the past three years in our research on interwell partitioning tracerstests (PITTs). These advances include (1) progress on the inverse problem of how to estimate the three-dimensional distribution of NAPL in aquifers from the tracer data, (2) the first ever partitioning tracer experiments in dual porosity media, (3) the first modeling of partitioning tracers in dual porosity media (4) experiments with complex NAPLs such as coal tar, (5) the development of an accurate and simple method to predict partition coefficients using the equivalent alkane carbon number approach, (6) partitioning tracer experiments in large model aquifers with permeability layers, (7) the first ever analysis of partitioning tracer data to estimate the change in composition of a NAPL before and after remediation (8) the first ever analysis of partitioning tracer data after a field demonstration of surfactant foam to remediate NAPL and (9) experiments at elevated temperatures .

Near-surface monitoring and subsurface characterization activities were undertaken in collaboration with the Southwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership on their San Juan Basin coal-bed methane pilot test site near Navajo City, New Mexico. Nearly 18,407 short tons (1.670 × 107 kg) of CO{sub 2} were injected into 3 seams of the Fruitland coal between July 2008 and April 2009. Between September 18 and October 30, 2008, two additions of approximately 20 L each of perfluorocarbon (PFC) tracers were mixed with the CO{sub 2} at the injection wellhead. PFC tracers in soil-gas and in the atmosphere were monitored over a period of 2 years using a rectangular array of permanent installations. Additional monitors were placed near existing well bores and at other locations of potential leakage identified during the pre-injection site survey. Monitoring was conducted using sorbent containing tubes to collect any released PFC tracer from soil-gas or the atmosphere. Near-surface monitoring activities also included CO{sub 2} surface flux and carbon isotopes, soil-gas hydrocarbon levels, and electrical conductivity in the soil. The value of the PFC tracers was demonstrated when a significant leakage event was detected near an offset production well. Subsurface characterization activities, including 3D seismic interpretation and attribute analysis, were conducted to evaluate reservoir integrity and the potential that leakage of injected CO{sub 2} might occur. Leakage from the injection reservoir was not detected. PFC tracers made breakthroughs at 2 of 3 offset wells which were not otherwise directly observable in produced gases containing 20–30% CO{sub 2}. These results have aided reservoir geophysical and simulation investigations to track the underground movement of CO{sub 2}. 3D seismic analysis provided a possible interpretation for the order of appearance of tracers at production wells.

Designing of smart clinical trials is critical for regulatory approval and future drug utilization. Importantly, trial design should be reconsidered if the interim analyses suggest unexpected harm, or conflicting results were yielded from the other trials within the same therapeutic area. With regard to antiplatelet agents, the perfect example is redesigning of the ongoing PRoFESS trial by eliminating aspirin from clopidogrel arm after the earlier MATCH trial results became available. The goal was to aseess the unchanged TRACER trial design in light of the evidence yielded from the earlier completed TRITON trial. TRACER was designed as a triple versus dual antiplatelet trial in NSTEMI patients with no previous long-term outcome data supporting such aggressive strategy. TRITON data represented dual versus dual antiplatelet therapy, and became available before TRACER enrollment starts revealing prasugrel front-loaded early vascular benefit predominantly in STEMI patients with the growing over time bleeding and cancer risks. Moreover, large prasugrel NSTEMI TRITON cohort exhibited trend towards excess mortality in experimental arm warning against aggressive TRACER design. The long-term TRITON results in general, and especially in the NSTEMI patients challenge unchanged TRACER trial design. Applying dual, rather than triple antiplatelet therapy protocol modification should be considered in TRACER to minimize bleeding, cancer, and non-cardiovascular death risks. PMID:26126053

Perfluorocarbon tracer data collected during the Cross Appalachian Tracer Experiment (CAPTEX '83) are used to determine the accuracy of three trajectory models: an isentropic, an isobaric, and a dimensional sigma model. The root-mean-square separation between model trajectories and trajectories derived from the surface tracer concentration is used to evaluate the models and assess the validity of isobaric, isentropic, isosigma, and mean transport vector assumptions. The root-mean-square data suggest that wind flow corresponding approximately to the low to middle boundary layer is the most appropriate for simulating the transport of boundary layer pollutants, and that the isentropic and isosigma transport assumptions are more realistic than the isobaric assumption, The results also indicate that synoptic type and the diurnal variation of mixing and wind shell within the boundary layer can affect the magnitude of root-mean-square separation between tracer trajectory and transport model trajectories. The uncertainty of the trajectory error suggested by the root-mean- square separation is approximately 50 km. Comparison of the tracer study with a theoretical study suggests that surface tracer data are useful for quantifying the magnitude of error in trajectory model calculations of boundary layer transport.

This second annual report on innovative uses of tracers for reservoir characterization contains four sections each describing a novel use of oilfield tracers. The first section describes and illustrates the use of a new single-well tracertest to estimate wettability. This test consists of the injection of brine containing tracers followed by oil containing tracers, a shut-in period to allow some of the tracers to react, and then production of the tracers. The inclusion of the oil injection slug with tracers is unique to this test, and this is what makes the test work. We adapted our chemical simulator, UTCHEM, to enable us to study this tracer method and made an extensive simulation study to evaluate the effects of wettability based upon characteristic curves for relative permeability and capillary pressure for differing wetting states typical of oil reservoirs. The second section of this report describes a new method for analyzing interwell tracer data based upon a type-curve approach. Theoretical frequency response functions were used to build type curves of ``transfer function`` and ``phase spectrum`` that have dimensionless heterogeneity index as a parameter to characterize a stochastic permeability field. We illustrate this method by analyzing field tracer data. The third section of this report describes a new theory for interpreting interwell tracer data in terms of channeling and dispersive behavior for reservoirs. Once again, a stochastic approach to reservoir description is taken. The fourth section of this report describes our simulation of perfluorocarbon gas tracers. This new tracer technology developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory is being tested at the Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 1 in California. We report preliminary simulations made of these tracers in one of the oil reservoirs under evaluation with these tracers in this field. Our compostional simulator (UTCOMP) was used for this simulation study.

This paper presents the modelling results of several tracer-tests performed in the cave system of Han-sur-Lesse (South Belgium). In Han-sur-Lesse, solute flows along accessible underground river stretches and through flooded areas that are rather unknown in terms of geometry. This paper focus on the impact of those flooded areas on solute transport and their dimensioning. The program used (One-dimensional Transport with Inflow and Storage: OTIS) is based on the two-region non equilibrium model that supposes the existence of an immobile water zone along the main flow zone in which solute can be caught. The simulations aim to replicate experimental breakthrough curves (BTCs) by adapting the main transport and geometric parameters that govern solute transport in karst conduits. Furthermore, OTIS allows a discretization of the investigated system, which is particularly interesting in systems presenting heterogeneous geometries. Simulation results show that transient storage is a major process in flooded areas and that the crossing of these has a major effect on the BTCs shape. This influence is however rather complex and very dependent of the flooded areas geometry and transport parameters. Sensibility tests performed in this paper aim to validate the model and show the impact of the parametrization on the BTCs shape. Those tests demonstrate that transient storage is not necessarily transformed in retardation. Indeed, significant tailing effect is only observed in specific conditions (depending on the system geometry and/or the flow) that allow residence time in the storage area to be longer than restitution time. This study ends with a comparison of solute transport in river stretches and in flooded areas.

Multi-tracer positron emission tomography (PET) can image two or more tracers in a single scan, characterizing multiple aspects of biological functions to provide new insights into many diseases. The technique uses dynamic imaging, resulting in time-activity curves that contain contributions from each tracer present. The process of separating and recovering separate images and/or imaging measures for each tracer requires the application of kinetic constraints, which are most commonly applied by fitting parallel compartment models for all tracers. Such multi-tracer compartment modeling presents challenging nonlinear fits in multiple dimensions. This work extends separable parameter space kinetic modeling techniques, previously developed for fitting single-tracer compartment models, to fitting multi-tracer compartment models. The multi-tracer compartment model solution equations were reformulated to maximally separate the linear and nonlinear aspects of the fitting problem, and separable least-squares techniques were applied to effectively reduce the dimensionality of the nonlinear fit. The benefits of the approach are then explored through a number of illustrative examples, including characterization of separable parameter space multi-tracer objective functions and demonstration of exhaustive search fits which guarantee the true global minimum to within arbitrary search precision. Iterative gradient-descent algorithms using Levenberg–Marquardt were also tested, demonstrating improved fitting speed and robustness as compared to corresponding fits using conventional model formulations. The proposed technique overcomes many of the challenges in fitting simultaneous multi-tracer PET compartment models. PMID:26788888

Multi-tracer positron emission tomography (PET) can image two or more tracers in a single scan, characterizing multiple aspects of biological functions to provide new insights into many diseases. The technique uses dynamic imaging, resulting in time-activity curves that contain contributions from each tracer present. The process of separating and recovering separate images and/or imaging measures for each tracer requires the application of kinetic constraints, which are most commonly applied by fitting parallel compartment models for all tracers. Such multi-tracer compartment modeling presents challenging nonlinear fits in multiple dimensions. This work extends separable parameter space kinetic modeling techniques, previously developed for fitting single-tracer compartment models, to fitting multi-tracer compartment models. The multi-tracer compartment model solution equations were reformulated to maximally separate the linear and nonlinear aspects of the fitting problem, and separable least-squares techniques were applied to effectively reduce the dimensionality of the nonlinear fit. The benefits of the approach are then explored through a number of illustrative examples, including characterization of separable parameter space multi-tracer objective functions and demonstration of exhaustive search fits which guarantee the true global minimum to within arbitrary search precision. Iterative gradient-descent algorithms using Levenberg-Marquardt were also tested, demonstrating improved fitting speed and robustness as compared to corresponding fits using conventional model formulations. The proposed technique overcomes many of the challenges in fitting simultaneous multi-tracer PET compartment models.

The DDM Tracer monitoring framework is aimed to trace and monitor the ATLAS file operations on the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid. The volume of traces has increased significantly since the framework was put in production in 2009. Now there are about 5 million trace messages every day and peaks can be near 250Hz, with peak rates continuing to climb, which gives the current structure a big challenge. Analysis of large datasets based on on-demand queries to the relational database management system (RDBMS), i.e. Oracle, can be problematic, and have a significant effect on the database's performance. Consequently, We have investigated some new high availability technologies like messaging infrastructure, specifically ActiveMQ, and key-value stores. The advantages of key value store technology are that they are distributed and have high scalability; also their write performances are usually much better than RDBMS, all of which are very useful for the Tracer monitoring framework. Indexes and distributed counters have been also tested to improve query performance and provided almost real time results. In this paper, the design principles, architecture and main characteristics of Tracer monitoring framework will be described and examples of its usage will be presented.

Tracerexperiments provide information about aquifer material properties vital for accurate site characterization. Unfortunately, density-induced sinking can distort tracer movement, leading to an inaccurate assessment of material properties. Yet existing criteria for selecting appropriate tracer concentrations are based on analysis of homogeneous media instead of media with heterogeneities typical of field sites. This work introduces a hydraulic-gradient correction for heterogeneous media and applies it to a criterion previously used to indicate density-induced instabilities in homogeneous media. The modified criterion was tested using a series of two-dimensional heterogeneous intermediate-scale tracer experiments and data from several detailed field tracertests. The intermediate-scale experimental facility (10.0 ?? 1.2 ?? 0.06 m) included both homogeneous and heterogeneous (??2/In ?? = 1.22) zones. The field tracertests were less heterogeneous (0.24 < ??2/ln ?? < 0.37), but measurements were sufficient to detect density-induced sinking. Evaluation of the modified criterion using the experiments and field tests demonstrates that the new criterion appears to account for the change in density-induced sinking due to heterogeneity. The criterion demonstrates the importance of accounting for heterogeneity to predict density-induced sinking and differences in the onset of density induced sinking in two-and three-dimensional systems.

In the history of pesticide drift measuring techniques, different tracers and a lot of different collection techniques have been used. At the start of a new Flemish project 'Protecting the Flemish environment against drift - The importance of drift-reducing techniques', wind tunnel tests have been executed to select the most efficient tracer and collection technique. As tracer types a fluorescent tracer Renaissance W15, 2 different chelates, a NaCl-solution and a fungicide Tolylfluanide were used. 2 different collection techniques were tested: drains incorporated in the wind tunnel floor filled with filter paper and filled with cloths. The recovery of the different tracers combined with the 2 collection materials was calculated. The advantages and disadvantages of the tracers and collection materials are enumerated in this article. PMID:15756877

Tracertesting is one of the most effective methods used to study groundwater flow, reservoir characteristics and subsurface properties in geohydrology. Hydrological tracertests were conducted with the basic assumption that the tracer is chemically inert and non-reactive. However, not all tracers behave non-reactive at different pH conditions, the particular tracer may interact with mineral surfaces in the reservoir. In order to study the geochemical behavior of some common hydrological tracers flow-through column experiments were conducted at 25°C. Six common hydrological tracers were investigated, amino G acid, fluorescein, napthionic acid, pyranine, rhodamine B and rhodamine G in porous rocks consisting of basaltic glass, quartz or rhyolite at pH 3, 6.5 and 9. Homogenous porous material of fixed grain size 45-125μm were dry packed in the column to conduct flow through column experiments. Tracers were pumped at fixed flow rates for 20 minutes and switched back to experimental blank solution and the tracer concentration monitored at the outlet. The measured break-through tracer curves were compared to theoretical 1-D reactive transport simulations calculated using the PHREEQC program (Parkhurst and Appelo, 1999). The data obtained from the breakthrough curves suggest that the tracers may be reactive, non-reactive and partially reactive depending on the rock type and solution pH. The tracers that were observed to be reactive showed the influence of adsorption and desorption. The results suggest that some tracers commonly used in ground water hydrology are not suitable under all conditions as they may react with the rocks of the groundwater system.

The objective of this project was to develop and demonstrate a new class of tracers that offer great promise for use in characterizing fracture networks in EGS reservoirs. From laboratory synthesis and testing through numerical modeling and field demonstrations, we have demonstrated the amazing versatility and applicability of quantum dot tracers. This report summarizes the results of four years of research into the design, synthesis, and characterization of semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots) for use as geothermal tracers.

Ground water tracers are solutes dissolved in or carried by ground water to delineate flow pathways. Tracers provide information on direction and speed of water movement and that of contaminants that might be conveyed by the water. Tracers can also be used to measure effective porosity, hydraulic conductivity, dispersivity and solute distribution coefficients. For most applications tracers should be conservative, that is, move at the same rate as the water and not sorb to aquifer materials. Tracers must have a number of properties to be functional. Regardless of the desired properties, the chemical and physical behavior of a tracer in ground water and the porous medium under study must be understood. Good estimates of tracer behavior can be obtained from laboratory studies. Studies in this proposal will address tracer properties with analytical method development, static sorption and degradation studies and column transport studies, Mutagenicity tests will be performed on promising candidates. The tracers that will be used for these experiments are fluorinated organic acids and other organic compounds that have the chemical and biological stability necessary to be effective in the Yucca Mountain environment. Special emphasis will be placed on compounds that fluoresce or have very large ultraviolet absorption coefficients for very high analytical sensitivity.

Groundwater-level rise plays an important role in the activation or reactivation of deep-seated landslides and so hydromechanical studies require a good knowledge of groundwater flows. Anisotropic and heterogeneous media combined with landslide deformation make classical hydrogeological investigations difficult. Hydrogeological investigations have recently focused on indirect hydrochemistry methods. This study aims at determining the groundwater conceptual model of the Séchilienne landslide and its hosting massif in the western Alps (France). The hydrogeological investigation is streamlined by combining three approaches: a one-time multi-tracertest survey during high-flow periods, a seasonal monitoring of the water stable-isotope content and electrical conductivity, and a hydrochemical survey during low-flow periods. The complexity of the hydrogeological setting of the Séchilienne massif leads to development of an original method to estimate the elevations of the spring recharge areas, based on topographical analyses and water stable-isotope contents of springs and precipitation. This study shows that the massif supporting the Séchilienne landslide is characterized by a dual-permeability behaviour typical of fractured-rock aquifers where conductive fractures play a major role in the drainage. There is a permeability contrast between the unstable zone and the intact rock mass supporting the landslide. This contrast leads to the definition of a shallow perched aquifer in the unstable zone and a deep aquifer in the intact massif hosting the landslide. The perched aquifer in the landslide is temporary, mainly discontinuous, and its extent and connectivity fluctuate according to the seasonal recharge.

Extended tailing of tracer breakthrough is often observed in pulse injection tracertests conducted in fractured geologic media. This behavior has been attributed to diffusive exchange of tracer between mobile fluids traveling through channels in fractures and relatively stagnant fluid between fluid channels, along fracture walls, or within the bulk matrix. We present a field example where tracer breakthrough tailing apparently results from nondiffusive transport. Tracertests were conducted in a fractured crystalline rock using both a convergent and weak dipole injection and pumping scheme. Deuterated water, bromide, and pentafluorobenzoic acid were selected as tracers for their wide range in molecular diffusivity. The late time behavior of the normalized breakthrough curves were consistent for all tracers, even when the pumping rate was changed. The lack of separation between tracers of varying diffusivity indicates that strong breakthrough tailing in fractured geologic media may be caused by advective transport processes. This finding has implications for the interpretation of tracertests designed to measure matrix diffusion in situ and the prediction of contaminant transport in fractured rock.

A perfluorocarbon tracer technique to determine infiltration rates in homes is described. A tracer kit, coined the Brookhaven National Laboratory Air Infiltration Measurement System, which can be deployed by the average homeowner, is briefly described. The tracer source is a fluoroelastomer plug impregnated with a known mass of perfluorocarbon tracers (PFT) and crimped within a metal shell. The PFT diffuses from the end of the plug. Two samplers briefly described are: the capillary adsorption tube sampler (CATS) and the programmable Brookhaven Atmospheric Tracer Sampler (BATS). Deployment of one of the diffusion sources in a home and use of a BATS unit to measure the increase in the tracer concentration perfluorodimethylcyclohexane (PDCH) are discussed. Results of the tests are presented. (MCW)

Accelerator mass spectrometry is so sensitive to small quantities of {sup 41}Ca that it might be used as a tracer in the study of human calcium kinetics to generate unique kinds of data. In contrast with the use of other Ca isotopic tracers, {sup 41}Ca tracer can be so administered that the tracer movements between the various body pools achieve a quasi steady state. Resorbing bone may thus be directly measured. We have tested such a protocol against a conventional stable isotope experiment with good agreement.

The feasibility of implementing tracer-monitored titrations in a flow system is demonstrated. A dye tracer is used to estimate the instant sample and titrant volumetric fractions without the need for volume, mass or peak width measurements. The approach was applied to spectrophotometric flow titrations involving variations of sample and titrant flow-rates (i.e. triangle programmed technique) or concentration gradients established along the sample zone (i.e. flow injection system). Both strategies required simultaneous monitoring of two absorbing species, namely the titration indicator and the dye tracer. Mixing conditions were improved by placing a chamber with mechanical stirring in the analytical path aiming at to minimize diffusional effects. Unlike most of flow-based titrations, the innovation is considered as a true titration, as it does not require a calibration curve thus complying with IUPAC definition. As an application, acidity evaluation in vinegars involving titration with sodium hydroxide was selected. Phenolphthalein and brilliant blue FCF were used as indicator and dye tracer, respectively. Effects of sample volume, titrand/titrant concentrations and flow rates were investigated aiming at improved accuracy and precision. Results were reliable and in agreement with those obtained by a reference titration procedure. PMID:26703261

This study tested whether isotope measurements of surface water and dissolved constituents in surface water could be used as tracers of non-point source pollution. Oxygen-18 was used as a water tracer, while carbon-14, carbon-13, and deuterium were tested as tracers of DOC. Carbon-14 and carbon-13 were also used as tracers of dissolved inorganic carbon, and chlorine-36 and uranium isotopes were tested as tracers of other dissolved salts. In addition, large databases of water quality measurements were assembled for the Missouri River at St. Louis and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in California to enhance interpretive results of the isotope measurements. Much of the water quality data has been under-interpreted and provides a valuable resource to investigative research, for which this report exploits and integrates with the isotope measurements.

During the 1984 ASCOT field study in Brush Creek Valley, two perfluorocarbon tracers were released into the nocturnal drainage flow at two different heights. The resulting surface concentrations were sampled at 90 sites, and vertial concentration profiles at 11 sites. These detailed tracer measurements provide a valuable dataset for developing and testing models of pollutant transport and dispersion in valleys.

The present work was aimed at the quantitative particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurement of a velocity field near the front of a propagating shock wave and the study of the dynamics of liquid tracers crossing the shock front. For this goal, a shock tube with a rectangular cross-section (48 × 24 mm) was used. The flat shock wave with Mach numbers M = 1.4-2.0 propagating inside the tube channel was studied as well as an expanding shock wave propagating outside the channel with M = 1.2-1.8 at its main axis. The PIV imaging of the shock fronts was carried out with an aerosol of dioctyl sebacate (DEHS) as tracer particles. The pressures of the gas in front of the shock waves studied ranged from 0.013 Mpa to 0.1 MPa in the series of experiments. The processed PIV data, compared to the 1D normal shock theory, yielded consistent values of wake velocity immediately behind the plain shock wave. Special attention was paid to the blurring of the velocity jump on the shock front due to the inertial particle lag and peculiarities of the PIV technique. A numerical algorithm was developed for analysis and correction of the PIV data on the shock fronts, based on equations of particle-flow interaction. By application of this algorithm, the effective particle diameter of the DEHS aerosol tracers was estimated as 1.03 ± 0.12 μm. A number of different formulations for particle drag were tested with this algorithm, with varying success. The results show consistency with previously reported experimental data obtained for cases of stationary shock waves.

Fluorinated organic acids were utilized in a test study as hydrologic tracers for the Yucca Mountain Project. Fluorinated acids included cinnamic acid; benzoic acid, and toluic acid. Results are discussed pertaining to retention time, elution time, and stability.

New tracers are needed to evaluate the efficiency of injection strategies in vapor-dominated environments. One group of compounds that seems to meet the requirements for vapor-phase tracing are the halogenated alkanes (HCFCs). HCFCs are generally nontoxic, and extrapolation of tabulated thermodynamic data indicate that they will be thermally stable and nonreactive in a geothermal environment. The solubilities and stabilities of these compounds, which form several homologous series, vary according to the substituent ratios of fluorine, chlorine, and hydrogen. Laboratory and field tests that will further define the suitability of HCFCs as vapor-phase tracers are under way.

Despite the increase of commercial shipping around the world, data are yet relatively scarce on the contribution of these emissions to ambient air particulates. One of the reasons is the complexity in the detection and estimation of shipping contributions to ambient particulates in harbor and urban environments, given the similarity with tracers of other combustion sources. This study aimed to identify specific tracers of shipping emissions in a Mediterranean city with an important harbor (Melilla, Spain). Results showed that for 24 h PM10 and PM2.5 samples, valid tracers of commercial shipping emissions were ratios of V/Ni = 4-5 and V/EC < 2, whereas V/EC > 8 excluded the influence of shipping emissions. Other ratios (V/ S, La/Ce, Zn/Ni, Pb/Zn, OC/EC) and tracers (Pb, Zn) were also tested but did not correlate with this source. Due to the changing composition of diesel fuels, tracers in the Mediterranean Sea may not be representative in other regions of the world and vice versa. The contribution of shipping emissions to ambient particulate matter (PM) urban background levels was quantified by positive matrix factorization (PMF), resulting in 2% and 4% of mean annual PM10 levels (0.8 microg/m3 primary particles and 1.7 microg/m3 secondary particles, with 20% uncertainty) and 14% of mean annual PM2.5 levels (2.6 microg/m3). PMID:19848163

Thermal-lifetime prediction is a traditional endeavor of inter-well tracertests conducted in geothermal reservoirs. Early tracertest signals (detectable within the first few years of operation) are expected to correlate with late-time production temperature drop (so-called 'thermal breakthrough', supposed to not occur before some decades of operation) of a geothermal reservoir. Whenever a geothermal reservoir can be described as a single-fracture system, its thermal lifetime will, ideally, be determined by two parameters, whose inversion from conservative-tracertest signals is straightforward and non-ambiguous (provided that the tracertests, and their interpretation, are performed in accordance to the rules of the art). However, as soon as just few more fractures are considered, this clear-cut correlation is broken. A given geothermal reservoir can simultaneously exhibit a single-fracture behavior, in terms of heat transport, and a multiple-fracture behavior, in terms of solute tracer transport (or vice-versa), whose effective values of fracture apertures, spacings, and porosities are essentially uncorrelated between heat and solute tracers. Solute transport parameters derived from conservative-tracertests will no longer characterize the heat transport processes (and thus temperature evolutions) taking place in the same reservoir. Parameters determining its thermal lifetime will remain invisible to conservative tracers in inter-well tests. Non-conservative tracers, in particular sorptive and thermo-sensitive compounds, can be used to overcome this gap between heat and tracer transport. However, significant differences exist, w. r. to tracer functionality, between different geothermal systems: (I) hot natural aquifers (with predominantly 'porous media' character), (II) aquifer-based EGS, (III) petrothermally-based EGS, (IV) naturally-fractured systems. Conservative tracers are indispensable to characterizing any of (I) - (IV), but their residence time

Improved understanding of stream solute transport requires meaningful comparison of processes across a wide range of discharge conditions and spatial scales. At reach scales where solute tracertests are commonly used to assess transport behavior, such comparison is still confounded due to the challenge of separating dispersive and transient storage processes from the influence of the advective timescale that varies with discharge and reach length. To better resolve interpretation of these processes from field-based tracer observations, we conducted recurrent conservative solute tracertests along a 1 km study reach during a storm discharge period and further discretized the study reach into six segments of similar length but different channel morphologies. The resulting suite of data, spanning an order of magnitude in advective timescales, enabled us to (1) characterize relationships between tracer response and discharge in individual segments and (2) determine how combining the segments into longer reaches influences interpretation of dispersion and transient storage from tracertests. We found that the advective timescale was the primary control on the shape of the observed tracer response. Most segments responded similarly to discharge, implying that the influence of morphologic heterogeneity was muted relative to advection. Comparison of tracer data across combined segments demonstrated that increased advective timescales could be misinterpreted as a change in dispersion or transient storage. Taken together, our results stress the importance of characterizing the influence of changing advective timescales on solute tracer responses before such reach-scale observations can be used to infer solute transport at larger network scales.

A multi-gas tracer system has been designed, built, and used on an explosively fractured oil shale rubble bed. This paper deals exclusively with the hardware, software, and overall operation of the tracer system. This system is a field portable, self-contained unit, which utilizes a mass spectrometer for gas analysis. The unit has a 20 channel sample port capability and is controlled by a desk top computer. The system is configured to provide a dynamic sensitivity range of up to six orders of magnitude. A roots blower is manifolded to the unit to provide continuous flow in all sample lines. The continuous flow process allows representative samples as well as decreasing the time between each measurement. Typical multiplex cycle time to evaluate four unique gases is approximately 12 seconds.

Analytic solutions are used in this study to evaluate potential groundwater transport of tritium used in goundwater tracertests southwest of the Nevada Test Site. Possible transport from this site is of interest because initial radionuclide concentrations were high and the site is close to goundwater discharge points (12 km). Anecdotal evidence indicates that 90 percent of these tracers were removed by pumping at the completion of the tests; this study examines the probable transport of the tracers with and without the removal. Classical dispersive transport analytic solutions are used, treating the tracertest as a point slug injection. Input parameters for the solutions were measured at the site, and consideration of parameter uncertainty is incorporated in the results. With removal of the tracer, the maximum expected region with above-Safe Drinking Water Act (40 CFR 121) concentrations of tritium extends 5 km from the injection point, and does not reach any sites of public access. Detectable tritium from the tests is likely to have reached the Ash Meadows fault zone, but flow along the fault probably diluted the tracer to below detection limits before arrival at springs along the fault. Arrival at the springs would have occurred 20 to 25 years after the tests. Without removal of the tracer, the solutions indicate that tritium concentrations just above Safe Drinking Water Act standards would have reached the Ash Meadows fault zone. In this case, detectable tritium might have been found in Devil`s Hole or Longstreet Spring, the nearest points of possible public exposure.

A cross-hole high-frequency acoustic investigation of a granitic rock mass subjected to sustained heating is reported. Compressional and shear-wave velocity measurements along four different paths between four vertical boreholes were made prior to turning on the heater, during 398 days of heating, and after the heater was turned off. These measurements correlated well with the presence of fracture zones, in which the fractures were closed by thermal expansion of the rock upon heating. When the rock mass cooled, the velocity measurements indicated a greater intensity of fracturing than had existed before heating. Laboratory compressional and shear-wave velocity measurements were also made on intact rock specimens obtained from the site and subjected to axial stress. When used to interpret the increases in velocities measured in the field upon heating the rock mass, these measurements implied increases in horizontal normal stresses to between 30 and 40 MPa. Increases in these magnitudes agree with stress measurements made by the other techniques. The ratio of measured compressional to shear-wave velocity appears to provide a sensitive measure of the fraction of crack porosity containing water or gas.

Two in situ vitrification (ISV) field tests were conducted at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) during the summer of 1990 to assess ISV suitability for long-term stabilization of buried waste that contains transuranic and other radionuclide contaminants. The ISV process uses electrical resistance heating to melt buried waste and soil in place, which upon cooldown and resolidification fixes the waste into a vitrified (glass-like) form. In these two ISV field tests, small quantities of rare-earth oxides (tracers DY{sub 2}O{sub 3}, Yb{sub 2}O{sub 3}, and Tb{sub 4}O{sub 7}) were placed in the test pits to simulate the presence of plutonium oxides and assess plutonium retention/release behavior. The analysis presented in this report indicates that dissolution of tracer oxides into basaltic melts can be expected with subsequent tracer molecular or microparticle carry-off by escaping gas bubbles, which is similar to adsorptive bubble separation and ion flotation processes employed in the chemical industry to separate dilute heavy species from liquids under gas sparging conditions. Gaseous bubble escape from the melt surface and associated aerosolization is believed to be responsible for small quantities of tracer ejection from the melt surface to the cover hood and off-gas collection system. Methods of controlling off-gassing during ISV would be expected to improve the overall retention of such heavy oxide contaminants during melting/vitrification of buried waste.

Perfluorocarbon tracers (PFTs), a class of six compounds, were used to help characterize the Shallow Oil Zone (SOZ) reservoir at the Naval Petroleum Reserve in California (NPRC) at Elk Hills. The SOZ reservoir is undergoing a pilot gas injection program to assess the technical feasibility and economic viability of injecting gas into the SOZ for improved oil recovery. PFTs were utilized in the pilot gas injection to qualitatively assess the extent of the pilot gas injection so as to determine the degree of gas containment within the SOZ reservoir.

Ocean tracers such as carbon dioxide, nutrients, plankton, and oil advect, diffuse, and react primarily in the oceanic mixed layer where air-sea gas exchange occurs and light is plentiful for photosynthesis. There can be substantial heterogeneity in the spatial distributions of these tracers due to turbulent stirring, particularly in the submesoscale range where partly geostrophic fronts and eddies and small-scale three-dimensional turbulence are simultaneously active. In this study, a large eddy simulation spanning horizontal scales from 20 km down to 5 m is used to examine the effects of multiscale turbulent mixing on nonreactive passive ocean tracers from interior and sea-surface sources. The simulation includes the effects of both wave-driven Langmuir turbulence and submesoscale eddies, and tracers with different initial and boundary conditions are examined in order to understand the respective impacts of small-scale and submesoscale motions on tracer transport. Tracer properties are characterized using spatial fields and statistics, multiscale fluxes, and spectra, and the results detail how tracer mixing depends on air-sea tracer flux rate, tracer release depth, and flow regime. Although vertical fluxes of buoyancy by submesoscale eddies compete with mixing by Langmuir turbulence, vertical fluxes of tracers are often dominated by Langmuir turbulence, particularly for tracers that are released near the mixed-layer base or that dissolve rapidly through the surface, even in regions with pronounced submesoscale activity. Early in the evolution of some tracers, negative eddy diffusivities occur co-located with regions of negative potential vorticity, suggesting that symmetric instabilities or other submesoscale phenomenon may act to oppose turbulent mixing.

After revisiting sand tracer techniques originally developed in the 1960s, a range of fluorescent coating formulations were tested in the laboratory. Explicit steps are presented for the preparation of the formulation evaluated to have superior attributes, a thermoplastic pigment/dye in a colloidal mixture with a vinyl chloride/vinyl acetate copolymer. In September 2010, 0.59 cubic meters of fluorescent tracer material was injected into the littoral zone about 4 kilometers upcoast of Mugu submarine canyon in California. The movement of tracer was monitored in three dimensions over the course of 4 days using manual and automated techniques. Detailed observations of the tracer's behavior in the coastal zone indicate that this tracer successfully mimicked the native beach sand and similar methods could be used to validate models of tracer movement in this type of environment. Recommendations including how to time successful tracer studies and how to scale the field of view of automated camera systems are presented along with the advantages and disadvantages of the described tracer methodology.

Perfluorocarbon tracers were released continuously from several surface locations and one power plant stack location during the winter (30 days) and summer (50 days) intensive studies as part of Project MOHAVE. Tracers were released in winter from the Mohave Power Plant (MPP) and Dangling Rope, UT, located on the shore of Lake Powell near Page, AZ; and in summer from MPP, the Tehachapi Pass between the Mojave Desert and the Central Valley in California, and El Centro, CA, on the California-Mexico border. At the Tehachapi tracer release site six-hour pulses of a separately identifiable perfluorocarbon tracer were released every four days in order to assess the time for the tracer to clear the monitoring network. Daily 24-hr integrated samples were collected at about 30 sites in four states. Limited tracer concentration data with higher time resolution is also available. Graphical displays and analyses identify several regional transport paths, including a convergence zone in the Mojave Desert, the importance of terrain channeling, especially in winter, and a relationship between 24-hr maximum influence function and distance that may prove useful as a scoping tool and to test regional scale air quality models. In winter, Dangling Rope tracer was routinely transported through the entire length of the Grand Canyon, while in summer, MPP tracer was routinely transported over most of Lake Mead. PMID:10842938

An operational prototype of the Balloon Tracer was developed and described. This prototype was designed to be capable of meeting all of the desired specifications for the Balloon Tracer. Its buoyancy adjustment subsystem is shown. Three Gilian instrument pumps operating in parallel provide a flow of about 12 litres per minute, depending upon backpressure. The miniature Klippard mechanical valves are actuated by a servo mechanism which only requires power when the state of the valves is being changed. The balloon itself for the operational prototype is just under 3 meters in diameter. A block diagram of the operational prototype payload measures ambient pressure, temperature, and humidity obtained from AIR which outputs its data in ASCII format. The vertical anemometer, which has a measured starting speed of under 2 cm/s, makes use of a Gill styrofoam propeller and a Spaulding Instruments rotation sendor. The command decoder is built around a chip developed originally for remote control television tuners. The command receiver operating on 13.8035 MHz was developed and built by Hock Engineering. The Argos transmitter is a Telonics platform transmitter terminal. The heart of the control system is an Intel 8052AH BASIC microcomputer with both random access and read only memory.

Information about how the ocean circulated during the past is useful in understanding changes in ocean and atmospheric chemistry, changes in the fluxes of heat and freshwater between the ocean and atmosphere, and changes in global wind patterns. The circulation of surface waters in the ocean leaves an imprint on sea surface temperature, and is also inextricably linked to the patterns of oceanic productivity. Much valuable information about past ocean circulation has been inferred from reconstructions of surface ocean temperature and productivity, which are covered in separate chapters. Here the focus is on the geochemical tracers that are used to infer the flow patterns and mixing of subsurface water masses.Several decades ago it was realized that chemistry of the shells of benthic foraminifera (carbon isotope and Cd/Ca ratios) carried an imprint of the nutrient content of deep-water masses (Shackleton, 1977; Broecker, 1982; Boyle, 1981). This led rapidly to the recognition that the water masses in the Atlantic Ocean were arrayed differently during the last glacial maximum than they are today, and the hypothesis that the glacial arrangement reflected a diminished contribution of low-nutrient North Atlantic deep water (NADW) ( Curry and Lohmann, 1982; Boyle and Keigwin, 1982). More detailed spatial reconstructions indicated a shallow nutrient-depleted water mass overlying a more nutrient-rich water mass in the glacial Atlantic. These findings spurred advances not only in geochemistry but in oceanography and climatology, as workers in these fields attempted to simulate the inferred glacial circulation patterns and assess the vulnerability of the modern ocean circulation to changes such as observed for the last ice age.While the nutrient distributions in the glacial Atlantic Ocean were consistent with a diminished flow of NADW, they also could have reflected an increase in inflow from the South Atlantic and/or a shallower yet undiminished deep-water mass. Clearly

PET myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) is increasingly being used for noninvasive detection and evaluation of coronary artery disease. However, the widespread use of PET MPI has been limited by the shortcomings of the current PET perfusion tracers. The availability of these tracers is limited by the need for an onsite ((15)O water and (13)N ammonia) or nearby ((13)N ammonia) cyclotron or commitment to costly generators ((82)Rb). Owing to the short half-lives, such as 76 seconds for (82)Rb, 2.06 minutes for (15)O water, and 9.96 minutes for (13)N ammonia, their use in conjunction with treadmill exercise stress testing is either not possible ((82)Rb and (15)O water) or not practical ((13)N ammonia). Furthermore, the long positron range of (82)Rb makes image resolution suboptimal and its low myocardial extraction limits its defect resolution. In recent years, development of an (18)F-labeled PET perfusion tracer has gathered considerable interest. The longer half-life of (18)F (109 minutes) would make the tracer available as a unit dose from regional cyclotrons and allow use in conjunction with treadmill exercise testing. Furthermore, the short positron range of (18)F would result in better image resolution. Flurpiridaz F 18 is by far the most thoroughly studied in animal models and is the only (18)F-based PET MPI radiotracer currently undergoing clinical evaluation. Preclinical and clinical experience with Flurpiridaz F 18 demonstrated a high myocardial extraction fraction, high image and defect resolution, high myocardial uptake, slow myocardial clearance, and high myocardial-to-background contrast that was stable over time-important properties of an ideal PET MPI radiotracer. Preclinical data from other (18)F-labeled myocardial perfusion tracers are encouraging. PMID:25234078

Positron emission tomography (PET) myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) is increasingly used for non-invasive detection and evaluation of coronary artery disease (CAD). However, the widespread use of PET MPI has been limited by shortcomings of the current PET perfusion tracers. Availability of these tracers is limited by need for an on-site (15O water and 13N ammonia) or nearby (13N ammonia) cyclotron or commitment to costly generators (82Rb). Due to short half-lives ranging from 76sec for 82Rb, to 2.1min for 15O water and 10min for 13N ammonia, their use in conjunction with treadmill exercise stress testing is either not possible (82Rb and 15O water) or is not practical (13N ammonia). Furthermore, the long positron range of 82Rb makes image resolution suboptimal and its low extraction limits its defect resolution. In recent years, development of an 18F labeled PET perfusion tracer has gathered considerable interest. The longer half-life of 18F (108 minutes) would make the tracer available as a unit dose from regional cyclotrons and allow use in conjunction with treadmill exercise testing. Furthermore, the short positron range of 18F would result in better image resolution. 18F flurpiridaz is by far the most thoroughly studied in animal models, and is the only F18-based PET MPI radiotracer currently undergoing clinical evaluation. Pre-clinical and clinical experience with 18F flurpiridaz demonstrated a high myocardial extraction fraction, high image and defect resolution, high myocardial uptake, slow myocardial clearance, and high myocardial-to-background contrast which was stable over time – important properties of an ideal PET MPI radiotracer. Pre-clinical data from other 18F labeled myocardial perfusion tracers are encouraging. PMID:25234078

An alternative method for assessing flowrates that does not depend on point measurements of air flow velocity is the constant tracer injection technique. In this method one injects a tracer gas at a constant rate into a duct and measures the resulting concentration downstream of the injection point. A simple equation derived from the conservation of mass allows calculation of the flowrate at the point of injection. Flowrate data obtained using both a pitot tube and a flow measuring station were compared with tracer gas flowrate measurements in the unit vent duct at the Callaway Nuclear Station during late 1995 and early 1996. These data are presented and discussed with an eye toward obtaining precise flowrate data for release rate calculations. The advantages and disadvantages of the technique are also described. In those test situations for which many flowrate combinations are required, or in large area ducts, a tracer flowrate determination requires fewer man-hours than does a conventional traverse-based technique and does not require knowledge of the duct area. 6 refs., 10 figs., 6 tabs.

Studies of human reverse cholesterol transport require intravenous infusion of cholesterol tracers. Because insoluble lipids may pose risk and because it is desirable to have consistent doses of defined composition available over many months, we investigated the manufacture of cholesterol tracer under current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) conditions appropriate for phase 1 investigation. Cholesterol tracer was prepared by sterile admixture of unlabeled cholesterol or cholesterol-d7 in ethanol with 20% Intralipid(®). The resulting material was filtered through a 1.2 micron particulate filter, stored at 4°C, and tested at time 0, 1.5, 3, 6, and 9 months for sterility, pyrogenicity, autoxidation, and particle size and aggregation. The limiting factor for stability was a rise in thiobarbituric acid-reacting substances of 9.6-fold over 9 months (P < 0.01). The emulsion was stable with the Z-average intensity-weighted mean droplet diameter remaining at 60 nm over 23 months. The zeta potential (a measure of negative surface charge protecting from aggregation) was unchanged at -36.2. Rapid cholesterol pool size was 25.3 ± 1.3 g. Intravenous cholesterol tracer was stable at 4°C for 9 months postproduction. CGMP manufacturing methods can be achieved in the academic setting and need to be considered for critical components of future metabolic studies. PMID:26416797

A set of tracer-infiltration experiments on soil columns by means of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed. Computed tomography (CT) was applied in order to map the spatial distribution of porous media, namely the local densities and porosities, and their variation within the soil sample under test. The CT visualisation was done in order to trace disturbances in the structure as a possible source of preferential flow. By means of MRI the flow paths during the infiltration experiment were visualized using a tracer pulse containing Ni(NO3)2 in a concentration of 0.05 mol/litre. The pulse was added under hydraulic steady state conditions. The tracer motion was monitored through its effect on the signal relaxation of 1H using a 7 Tesla vertical magnet system equipped with a 40 mm RF probe. The boundary condition at the top of the soil columns was maintained using a dripping system connected to a HPLC pump with flow rate set to 0.5 ml/min. Free outflow was used as the bottom boundary condition. The vertical component of the local velocity value was calculated after the experiment. Small disturbances in the tracer front observed during the break-through could be related to the preferential flow phenomena in combination with the air bubble entrapment. This research has been supported by research project SP/2e7/229/07 and DBU - Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt.

The transition zone between groundwater and surface water is commonly referred to as the hyporheic zone. In the so-called hyporheic exchange river water penetrates into the subsurface, remains there for a certain time, and then returns into the active water channel at a location further downstream. Hence, solutes enter the sediment where they can potentially be retained or degraded so that the hyporheic exchange is of particular importance for the prediction of reactive solute transport in rivers. In the past, tracer experiments where a conservative tracer is added into the river and measured further downstream were used to characterize hyporheic exchange. The problem is that the hyporheic exchange has similar effects on the measured tracer breakthrough curves than mixing processes in the river itself (e.g. dispersion). In order to separate these processes, we carried out tracertests where the compound resazurin was used as a reactive tracer in addition to a conservative tracer (uranine). Resazurin degrades selectively and irreversibly in the hyporheic zone and thus provides additional information specifically on the hyporheic exchange. We performed a total of five tracertests at two different tributaries of the river Neckar (Goldersbach and Steinlach) and at the river Selke in Germany. We used three-channel fluorometers that are able to measure resazurin, resorufin and uranine simultaneously and directly in the field. The high temporal resolution of the measurements and the avoidance of possible errors related to sample storage and contamination led to high quality data sets that were used as input for the subsequent modeling. The breakthrough curves of uranine and resazurin were analyzed simultaneously using a shape-free method for the determination of hyporheic travel time distributions (deconvolution). In comparison to the analysis of uranine alone, we were able to improve the determination of the strength of hyporheic exchange and hyporheic travel time

A recent report found that power and heat produced from engineered (or enhanced) geothermal systems (EGSs) could have a major impact on the United States while incurring minimal environmental impacts. EGS resources differ from high-grade hydrothermal resources in that they lack sufficient temperature distributions, permeability/porosity, fluid saturation, or recharge of reservoir fluids. Therefore, quantitative characterization of temperature distributions and the surface area available for heat transfer in EGS is necessary for commercial development of geothermal energy. The goal of this project is to provide integrated tracer and tracer interpretation tools to facilitate this characterization. Modeling capabilities are being developed as part of this project to support laboratory and field testing to characterize engineered geothermal systems in single- and multi-well tests using tracers. The objective of this report is to describe the simulation plan and the status of model development for simulating tracertests for characterizing EGS.

ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 110 provides a quantitative method for testing the performance of laboratory fume hoods. Through release of a known quantity (4.0 Lpm) of a tracer gas, and subsequent monitoring of the tracer gas concentration in the "breathing zone" of a mannequin positioned in front of the hood, this method allows for evaluation of laboratory hood performance. Standard 110 specifies sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) as the tracer gas; however, suitable alternatives are allowed. Through three series of performance tests, this analysis serves to investigate the use of nitrous oxide (N2O) as an alternate tracer gas for hood performance testing. Single gas tests were performed according to ASHRAE Standard 110-1995 with each tracer gas individually. These tests showed identical results using an acceptance criterion of AU 0.1 with the sash half open, nominal 18 inches (0.46m) high, and the face velocity at a nominal 60 fpm (0.3 m/s). Most data collected in these single gas tests, for both tracer gases, were below the minimum detection limit, thus two dual gas tests were developed for simultaneous sampling of both tracer gases. Dual gas dual ejector tests were performed with both tracer gases released simultaneously through two ejectors, and the concentration measured with two detectors using a common sampling probe. Dual gas single ejector tests were performed with both tracer gases released though a single ejector, and the concentration measured in the same manner as the dual gas dual ejector tests. The dual gas dual ejector tests showed excellent correlation, with R typically greater than 0.9. Variance was observed in the resulting regression line for each hood, likely due to non-symmetry between the two challenges caused by variables beyond the control of the investigators. Dual gas single ejector tests resulted in exceptional correlation, with R>0.99 typically for the consolidated data, with a slope of 1.0. These data indicate equivalent results for ASHRAE 110

Reactive tracers have long been considered a possible means of measuring thermal drawdown in a geothermal system, before significant cooling occurs at the extraction well. Here, we examine the sensitivity of the proposed method to reservoir cooling and demonstrate that while the sensitivity of the method as generally proposed is low, it may be practical under certain conditions. Our analyses suggest that modifications to that method, where practical, could provide much greater sensitivity. In particular, if the reaction can be quenched before maximum temperature is reached, the sensitivity is greatly enhanced. Push-pull tracertests conducted at the injection well demonstrate similar advantages. Other alternatives, such as combinations of tracers, and tracers with parallel or chain decay behavior may offer similar advantages.

Landfill methane emissions are difficult to estimate due to limited observations and data uncertainty. The mobile tracer dilution method is a widely used and cost-effective approach for predicting landfill methane emissions. The method uses a tracer gas released on the surface of the landfill and measures the concentrations of both methane and the tracer gas downwind. Mobile measurements are conducted with a gas analyzer mounted on a vehicle to capture transects of both gas plumes. The idea behind the method is that if the measurements are performed far enough downwind, the methane plume from the large area source of the landfill and the tracer plume from a small number of point sources will be sufficiently well-mixed to behave similarly, and the ratio between the concentrations will be a good estimate of the ratio between the two emissions rates. The mobile tracer dilution method is sensitive to different factors of the setup such as placement of the tracer release locations and distance from the landfill to the downwind measurements, which have not been thoroughly examined. In this study, numerical modeling is used as an alternative to field measurements to study the sensitivity of the tracer dilution method and provide estimates of measurement accuracy. Using topography and wind conditions for an actual landfill, a landfill emissions rate is prescribed in the model and compared against the emissions rate predicted by application of the tracer dilution method. Two different methane emissions scenarios are simulated: homogeneous emissions over the entire surface of the landfill, and heterogeneous emissions with a hot spot containing 80% of the total emissions where the daily cover area is located. Numerical modeling of the tracer dilution method is a useful tool for evaluating the method without having the expense and labor commitment of multiple field campaigns. Factors tested include number of tracers, distance between tracers, distance from landfill to transect

Tracers are frequently used to estimate both the average travel time for water flow through the tracer swept volume and NAPL saturation. The same data can be used to develop a statistical distribution describing the hydraulic conductivity in the sept volume and a possible distri...

This paper describes a mobile analyzer for sulfur hexafluoride, an atmospheric tracer. A commercial instrument is used on-board a moving vehicle to measure tracer concentrations in the parts per trillion (ppt) range. This instrument provides rapid, in-the-field data at minimum cost.

Scientists in the United States and Canada have collaborated on the Cross-Appalachian Tracer Experiment (CAPTEX '83) using the perfluorocarbon tracer to simulate the long-range transport of pollutants in the atmosphere. The experiments, conducted in September and October of 1983 ...

Subsurface barriers are an extremely promising remediation option to many waste-management problems. It is recognized that monitoring of the barrier is necessary to provide confidence in the ability of the barrier to contain the pollutants. However, the large size and deep placement of subsurface barriers make detection of leaks a challenging task. Therefore, typical geophysical methods are not suitable for the monitoring of an emplaced barrier`s integrity. Perfluorocarbon tracers (PFTs) have been tested as a means of barrier verification at the Hanford geotechnical test facility, where a soil/cement barrier was emplaced around a buried drum. PFTs were injected beneath the drum for three days in the center of the barrier 3 m below grade. The concentration of PFTs in seven external and two internal monitoring wells has been measured as a function of time over a 17-day period. The data have been analyzed through numerical modeling to determine barrier integrity and PFT diffusion rates through the barrier. This paper discusses the experimental design, test results, data analysis, and modeling of PFT transport in the subsurface system.

Procedures for testing atmospheric transport and dispersion models for distances of several hundred to 1000 km from sources of pollutants are reviewed. The approach is to use both simulated tracer distributions and actual tracer measurements on the US-Canada multi-agency Cross-Appalachian Tracer Experiment CAPTEX '83 surface sampling domain to estimate the accuracy with which the parameters describing the location and distribution of the tracer cloud can be determined from experimental data. In CAPTEX '83, five perfluorocarbon tracer releases were made from Dayton, Ohio, and two releases from Sudbury, Ontario. Surface air samples were collected at 84 locations in northeastern United States and eastern Canada. Three simulation experiments have been conducted with a Gaussian plume model simulating time-integrated surface-layer concentration (i.e., dosage) distributions of tracer clouds from a surface source.

the interface and undergoes hydrolysis in contact with water. As a consequence, two water soluble reaction products are formed and can be measured in the water phase over time. Here, the reaction kinetics is the rate-limiting step for the phase transfer and strongly dependents on reservoir properties, such as temperature and pH. Such tracer molecules must have the following properties: i) low polarity (high log KOW) to ensure high scCO2 solubility and to minimize distribution into the water phase; (ii) at least one highly water soluble reaction product, which does not do partitioning back into the scCO2 phase; (iii) low detection limit. On the basis of naphthalenesulfonic acid, an established geothermal tracer, different molecules with the desired properties were synthesized and tested in the laboratory. For studying the occurring processes at the interface under atmospheric pressure conditions the scCO2 was replaced with a non-polar organic solvent. The experiments were conducted in a static batch system with constant interfacial area as well as in a dynamic system with changing interface size. In parallel, a macroscopic model which couples mass transfer and reaction kinetics is developed to interpret the data. In conclusion, experiments indicate that the integration of hydrolysis kinetics is possible and even one of the reaction products may be used as additional partitioning tracer, i.e. for measuring the residual saturation.

The number of oil and gas production operations is increasing as is their proximity to residential areas. These facilities have been known to emit methane and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to the atmosphere during the different phases of development and operation. To gain a better understanding of the types and magnitude of these emissions, accurate methods for identifying and measuring the plumes released from these sources are needed. One of the most common methods for characterization of emissions is the tracer ratio. In this method, a known amount of a tracer gas is released near the potential emission source, both the tracer and the compound(s) of interest are then measured at a location downwind of the potential emissions; and the emission rate is estimated based on the ratio of the compound of interest to the tracer at the location of the measurement. This work describes field tests conducted in an air field in Fort Collins, CO to evaluate a tracer release and detection system. Acetylene (tracer gas) and methane (emission from potential source) have been released from a custom made manifold system. A PICARRO G2203 analyzer (using cavity ring down spectroscopy) and a mobile kit A0941 have been deployed on a vehicle for the downwind measurements. The emissions are measured downwind of the source and the tracer ratio method is used to calculate the emissions of methane. The measured and calculated values have been compared. Additionally, silonite-coated canisters have been used for collection and analysis of acetylene to further validate the setup. This system has been evaluated for sensitivity, accuracy and response time through a series of controlled tracer and methane releases under various meteorological conditions. The results from these tests and error analysis for the system are presented and discussed.

The radon transport test, which is a widely used test case for atmospheric transport models, is carried out to evaluate the tracer advection schemes in the Grid-Point Atmospheric Model of IAP-LASG (GAMIL). Two of the three available schemes in the model are found to be associated with significant biases in the polar regions and in the upper part of the atmosphere, which implies potentially large errors in the simulation of ozone-like tracers. Theoretical analyses show that inconsistency exists between the advection schemes and the discrete continuity equation in the dynamical core of GAMIL and consequently leads to spurious sources and sinks in the tracer transport equation. The impact of this type of inconsistency is demonstrated by idealized tests and identified as the cause of the aforementioned biases. Other potential effects of this inconsistency are also discussed. Results of this study provide some hints for choosing suitable advection schemes in the GAMIL model. At least for the polar-region-concentrated atmospheric components and the closely correlated chemical species, the Flux-Form Semi-Lagrangian advection scheme produces more reasonable simulations of the large-scale transport processes without significantly increasing the computational expense.

The partitioning tracer technique is among the DNAPL source-zone characterization methods being evaluated, while surfactant in-situ flushing is receiving attention as an innovative technology for enhanced source-zone cleanup. Here, we examine in batch and column experiments the magnitude of artifacts introduced in estimating DNAPL content when residual surfactants are present. The batch equilibrium tests, using residual surfactants ranging from 0.05 to 0.5 wt.%, showed that as the surfactant concentrations increased, the tracer partition coefficients decreased linearly for sodium hexadecyl diphenyl oxide disulfonate (DowFax 8390), increased linearly for polyoxyethylene (10) oleyl ether (Brij 97), and decreased slightly or exhibited no observable trend for sodium dihexyl sulfosuccinate (AMA 80). Results from column tests using clean sand with residual DowFax 8390 and Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) were consistent with those of batch tests. In the presence of DowFax 8390 (less than 0.5 wt.%), the PCE saturations were underestimated by up to 20%. Adsorbed surfactants on a loamy sand with positively charged oxides showed false indications of PCE saturation based on partitioning tracers in the absence of PCE. Using no surfactant (background soil) gave a false PCE saturation of 0.0004, while soil contacted by AMA 80, Brij 97, and DowFax 8390 gave false PCE saturations of 0.0024, 0.043, and 0.23, respectively.

A tracer flow-test (TFT) survey of three production wells was performed in February, 1996, for Akita Geothermal Energy Co., Ltd. (AGECO) at the Uenotai geothermal field in the Akita prefecture of northern Honshu, Japan. The survey was conducted as a demonstration test of the chemical tracer method for two-phase flow measurement. Although the tracer method has been in commercial use for about 4 years this was the first time the technique had been applied on wells with mixing runs of less than 12 meters. The tracers were injected through the wing valve on the side of the wellheads to maximize the tracer dispersion through the 9 meters of pipeline available before sample collection. The three wells tested had steam fractions at the wellhead of 38 to 99.4 % by weight and total flow rates of 31.5 to 51.5 tons/hr. Based on the test results the chemical tracer method is considered accurate under the conditions experienced at the Uenotai geothermal field and has been adopted for routine flow rate and enthalpy monitoring.

Extensive tracertesting is expected to take place at the C-well complex in the Nevada Test Site as part of the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project. The C-well complex consists of one pumping well, C3, and two injection wells, C1 and C2 into which tracer will be introduced. The goal of this research was to provide USGS with numerous tracers to completed these tests. Several classes of fluorinated organic acids have been evaluated. These include numerous isomers of fluorinated benzoic acids, cinnamic acids, and salicylic acids. Also several derivatives of 2-hydroxy nicotinic acid (pyridone) have been tested. The stability of these compounds was determined using batch and column tests. Ames testing (mutagenicity/carcinogenicity) was conducted on the fluorinated benzoic acids and a literature review of toxicity of the fluorobenzoates and three perfluoro aliphatic acids was prepared. Solubilities were measured and method development work was performed to optimize the detection of these compounds. A Quality Assurance (QA) Program was developed under existing DOE and USGS guidelines. The program includes QA procedures and technical standard operating procedures. A tracertest, using sodium iodide, was performed at the C-well complex. HRC chemists performed analyses on site, to provide real time data for the USGS hydrologists and in the laboratories at UNLV. Over 2,500 analyses were performed. This report provides the results of the laboratory experiments and literature reviews used to evaluate the potential tracers and reports on the results of the iodide C-well tracertest.

We study a multi-stream model (MSM) for vertical mixing of a passive tracer in the convective boundary layer, in which the tracer is advected by many vertical streams with different probabilities and diffused by small scale turbulence. We test the MSM algorithm for investigatin...

The objective of this research is to develop an advanced, innovative technique for the description of reservoir heterogeneity. This proposed method consists of using tracers in single-well backflow tests. The general idea is to make use of fluid drift in the reservoir either due to naturally occurring pressure gradients in the reservoir, or by deliberately imposed pressure gradients using adjacent injection and production wells in the same reservoir. The analytical tool that will be used to design and interpret these tests is a compositional reservoir simulator with special features added and tested specifically for this purpose. 2 refs., 5 figs.

The diffusion properties of spherical tracers coupled through a repulsive potential to a system of active dumbbells are analyzed. We model the dumbbells’ dynamics with Langevin equations and the activity with a self-propulsive force of constant magnitude directed along the main axis of the molecules. Two types of tracers are considered. Thermal tracers are coupled to the same bath as the dumbbells while athermal tracers are not; both interact repulsively with the dumbbells. We focus our attention on the intruders’ mean square displacement and how it compares to the one of the dumbbells. We show that the dynamics of thermal intruders, with mass similar to the one of the dumbbells, display the typical four time-lag regimes of the dumbbells’ mean square displacement. The thermal tracers’ late-time diffusion coefficient depends on their mass very weakly and it is close to the one of the dumbbells at low Péclet only. Athermal tracers only have ballistic and late-time diffusive regimes. The late time diffusion coefficients of athermal tracers and dumbbells have similar values at high Péclet number when their masses are of the same order, while at low Péclet number this coefficient gets close to the one of the dumbbells only when the tracers are several order of magnitude heavier than the dumbbells. We propose a generalization of the Enskog law for dilute hard disks, that describes the athermal tracers’ mean square displacement in the form of a scaling law in terms of their mass.

The Pipeline Characterization Using Tracers (PCUT) technique uses conservative and partitioning, reactive or other interactive tracers to remotely determine the amount of contaminant within a run of piping or ductwork. The PCUT system was motivated by a method that has been successfully used to characterize subsurface soil contaminants and is similar in operation to that of a gas chromatography column. By injecting a ?slug? of both conservative and partitioning tracers at one end (or section) of the piping and measuring the time history of the concentration of the tracers at the other end (or another section) of the pipe, the presence, location, and amount of contaminant within the pipe or duct can be determined. The tracers are transported along the pipe or duct by a gas flow field, typically air or nitrogen, which has a velocity that is slow enough so that the partitioning tracer has time to interact with the contaminant before the tracer slug completely passes over the contaminate region. PCUT not only identifies the presence of contamination, it also can locate the contamination along the pipeline and quantify the amount of residual. PCUT can be used in support of deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) of piping and ducts that may have been contaminated with hazardous chemicals such as chlorinated solvents, petroleum products, radioactive materials, or heavy metals, such as mercury.

Scalable tracers are potentially a useful tool to examine diffusion mechanisms and to predict diffusion coefficients, particularly for hindered diffusion in complex, heterogeneous, or crowded systems. Scalable tracers are defined as a series of tracers varying in size but with the same shape, structure, surface chemistry, deformability, and diffusion mechanism. Both chemical homology and constant dynamics are required. In particular, branching must not vary with size, and there must be no transition between ordinary diffusion and reptation. Measurements using scalable tracers yield the mean diffusion coefficient as a function of size alone; measurements using nonscalable tracers yield the variation due to differences in the other properties. Candidate scalable tracers are discussed for two-dimensional (2D) diffusion in membranes and three-dimensional diffusion in aqueous solutions. Correlations to predict the mean diffusion coefficient of globular biomolecules from molecular mass are reviewed briefly. Specific suggestions for the 3D case include the use of synthetic dendrimers or random hyperbranched polymers instead of dextran and the use of core–shell quantum dots. Another useful tool would be a series of scalable tracers varying in deformability alone, prepared by varying the density of crosslinking in a polymer to make say “reinforced Ficoll” or “reinforced hyperbranched polyglycerol.” PMID:25319586

A complex tracer mixture was injected continuously for over two years into a 10 m x 10 m x 7 m block of unsaturated tuff as part of the Busted Butte unsaturated-zone tracertest at Yucca Mountain. The test was designed to measure tracer transport within the Topopah Springs and Calico Hills tuffs, units that occur between the potential high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain and the water table below. The mixture included nonreactive (Br, I, and fluorinated benzoic acids (FBAs)) and reactive tracers (Li, Ce, Sm, Ni, Co, and Mn). Bromide, I, FBAs, and Li were detected during the test on absorbent pads emplaced in a series of solute collection boreholes located beneath the injectors but the more strongly sorbing metals did not reach the collection boreholes during this period. To determine the distribution and mobility of these metals, tracer constituents were extracted from tuff samples collected during overcoring and mineback of the test block. Tracers were extracted from the tuff samples by leaching with a 5% nitric acid solution for metals and a bicarbonate-carbonate buffer for anions. Results from the overcore sample suite show that metals have migrated through the tuff in the region adjacent to and immediately below the tracer injectors. Consistent with laboratory sorption measurements and observed breakthrough in the collection boreholes, rock analyses showed that Li is the most mobile of the metals. Co and Ni behave similarly, traveling tens of cm from the injection sites, while Sm and Ce moved far less, possibly due to precipitation reactions in addition to sorption. Determination of Mn transport is complicated by high background concentrations in the tuff; additional background samples are currently being evaluated. As expected, the rock analyses show that the nonreactive tracers Br and FBAs have moved beyond the overcore region, corroborating results from collection boreholes.

Understanding dominant transport processes is essential to improve prediction of contaminants transfer in fractured crystalline rocks. In such fractured media, solute transport is characterized by fast advection within open and connected fractures and sometimes by matrix diffusion that may be enhanced by chemical weathering. To investigate this phenomenon, we carried out radially convergent and push-pull tracer experiments in the fractured granite of the Experimental Hydrogeological Park of Choutuppal (Southern India). Tracertests were performed in the same permeable fracture from few meters to several ten meters and from few hours to two weeks to check the consistency of the results at different spatial and temporal scales. These different types of forced gradient tracer experiments allow separation of the effects of advection and diffusion on transport. Breakthrough curves from radially convergent tracertests display systematically a -2 power law slope on the late time behavior. This tailing can be adequately represented by a transport model that only takes into account heterogeneous advection caused by fluid flow channeling. The negligible impact of matrix diffusion was confirmed by the push-pull tracertests, at least for the duration of experiments. A push-pull experiment carried out with a cocktail of two conservative tracers having different diffusion coefficients displayed similar breakthrough curves. Increasing the resting phase during the experiments did not lead to a significant decline of peak concentration. All these results suggest a negligible impact of matrix diffusion. However, increasing the scales of investigation during push-pull tracertests led to a decrease of the power law slope on the late time behavior. This behavior that cannot be modeled with a transport model based on independent flow paths and indicate non-reversible heterogeneous advection. This process could be explained by the convergence of streamlines after a certain distance

The Urban Dispersion Program March 2005 Field Study tracer releases, sampling, and analytical methods are described in detail. There were two days where tracer releases and sampling were conducted. A total of 16.0 g of six tracers were released during the first test day or Intensive Observation Period (IOP) 1 and 15.7 g during IOP 2. Three types of sampling instruments were used in this study. Sequential air samplers, or SAS, collected six-minute samples, while Brookhaven atmospheric tracer samplers (BATS) and personal air samplers (PAS) collected thirty-minute samples. There were a total of 1300 samples resulting from the two IOPs. Confidence limits in the sampling and analysis method were 20% as determined from 100 duplicate samples. The sample recovery rate was 84%. The integrally averaged 6-minute samples were compared to the 30-minute samples. The agreement was found to be good in most cases. The validity of using a background tracer to calculate sample volumes was examined and also found to have a confidence level of 20%. Methods for improving sampling and analysis are discussed. The data described in this report are available as Excel files. An additional Excel file of quality assured tracer data for use in model validation efforts is also available. The file consists of extensively quality assured BATS tracer data with background concentrations subtracted.

In larval lamprey, seven fluorescent tracers were tested as potential candidates for retrograde double labeling of descending brain neurons: Fluoro Gold (FG); fluorescein dextran amine (FDA); True Blue (TB); cascade blue dextran amine (CBDA); Fast Blue (FB); Texas red dextran amine (TRDA); and tetramethylrhodamine dextran amine (RDA). The first tracer (FG, TB, FB, or CBDA) was applied to the spinal cord at 40% body length (BL). In separate experiments, the second tracer (TRDA or RDA) was applied to the spinal cord at 20% BL. The tracer combination FG/TRDA was found to have the best optical properties for double labeling. However, application of FG to the spinal cord with the method used for the other tracers resulted in labeling of 'lateral cells' along the sides of the rhombencephalon that were presumed to be non-neuronal and that obscured some of the descending brain neurons. Control experiments suggested that FG was transported in the circulation to the brain, where the tracer was taken up by lateral cells. Therefore, a special technique was developed for applying FG to the spinal cord without allowing the tracer to enter the circulation. In larval lamprey, this important double-labeling technique that was developed for TRDA and FG is being used to examine axonal regeneration and projection patterns of descending brain neurons. PMID:9874141

conditions at both macro- and micro-scales. A series of "jar tests" were conducted to assess how the tracer behaved in a turbulent water when combined with natural estuarine mud. A comprehensive series of floc characteristics tests were conducted using tracer to natural mud ratios (T:M) of 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75 and 0:100. The floc size and settling velocity measurements were obtained using the LabSFLOC - Laboratory Spectral Flocculation Characteristics - instrument. Other parameters including floc porosity, floc dry mass, and the mass settling flux were also calculated using algorithms originally developed by Fennessy et al. (1997). Floc internal micro-structure (matrix) at a sub-micron level (1-2 nm) and elemental floc composition were observed using TEM (transmission electron microscopy) and EDS (energy dispersive spectroscopy). The flocs observed comprised tracer to natural mud ratios (T:M) of 100:0, 50:50 and 0:100 enabling examination of micro-scale interactions between tracer and natural mud. The LabSFLOC video assessments demonstrated that pure natural muds, tracer and flocs comprising both tracer and natural mud exhibited similar macrofloc properties in terms of settling velocity, individual floc size, density and porosity. Electron micrographs of the natural mud indicated a typical estuarine floc with a highly porous, complex matrix of structurally independent organic and inorganic constituents. Aggregation was controlled by both bio- and electrochemical flocculation. In comparison, the tracer formed dense, less porous, inorganic flocs where aggregation was controlled by electrochemical flocculation. Flocs comprising both natural mud and tracer were also observed and TEM shows individual microflocs of both dense, platy material typical of the tracer and microflocs comprising biological and inorganic particles typical of those found in the natural estuarine mud. EDS spectra of these mixed flocs were also collected and the tracer can be identified by its

Purpose: To evaluate the performance and safety of a radiation therapy positioning system (RealEye) based on tracking a radioactive marker (Tracer) implanted in patients with localized prostate cancer. Methods and Materials: We performed a single-arm multi-institutional trial in 20 patients. The iridium-192 ({sup 192}Ir)-containing Tracer was implanted in the patient together with 4 standard gold seed fiducials. Patient prostate-related symptoms were evaluated with the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) questionnaire. Computed tomography (CT) was performed for treatment planning, during treatment, and after treatment to evaluate the migration stability of the Tracer. At 5 treatment sessions, cone beam CT was performed to test the positioning accuracy of the RealEye. Results: The Tracer was successfully implanted in all patients. No device or procedure-related adverse events occurred. Changes in IPSS scores were limited. The difference between the mean change in Tracer-fiducial distance and the mean change in fiducial-fiducial distance was -0.39 mm (95% confidence interval [CI] upper boundary, -0.22 mm). The adjusted mean difference between Tracer position according to RealEye and the Tracer position on the CBCT for all patients was 1.34 mm (95% CI upper boundary, 1.41 mm). Conclusions: Implantation of the Tracer is feasible and safe. Migration stability of the Tracer is good. Prostate patients can be positioned and monitored accurately by using RealEye.

This paper discusses further the use of density tracers and coloured particles in the teaching of coal preparation and associated subjects. It is a follow up to the paper presented at Coal Prep `94 {open_quotes}Miniature Beneficiation{close_quotes}. As described in that paper, current uses include demonstrating gravity separation processes, and exercises to illustrate the principles of sampling and beneficiation plant efficiency testing. Future uses for tracers include a novel method to demonstrate the principles of practical dense medium separation and float and sink analysis; as well as programme to increase the students` awareness of sampling standards. The last-named applications has indicated possible deficiencies in the present system of sampling hard coal when seeking to determine certain analytical parameters.

Choosing heat for subsurface investigations is attractive because changes in temperature can be easily measured, and natural variations are typically slower than the timescale of the experiments. The tomographical setup expands the applicability of such tests to reconstruct the spatial distribution of hydraulic aquifer properties. A new inversion methodology is presented for thermal tracer tomography, using tracer travel times to invert the hydraulic conductivity distribution of the aquifer. If we can assume that heat transport is driven by advection, the travel time of the thermal tracer can be related to the hydraulic parameters of the aquifer. With this assumption other thermal effects such as thermal diffusion or density driven flow appear as noise in the results. To reduce these effects the early time diagnostics of the recorded breakthrough curves are used, focusing on the fastest transport routes between the sources and receivers. The inverse problem of the experiment thus can be formulated as a classical travel time problem, and it can be solved using standard eikonal solver algorithms known from seismic or hydraulic tomography. The method is demonstrated with a high resolution 3-D aquifer analog dataset. The generated 3-D reconstruction reveals the potential of the method, especially in finding the preferential flow paths within the aquifer. Aside from this, the developed method is computationally efficient and can provide results in a fragment of the time required for full-physics model calibration. The method is also tested under field conditions. Four heat tracer injections were performed during a three day field campaign at the Widen field site in northeast Switzerland. Pulse signals were used and the temperature evolution was measured downstream using a distributed measurement system. The preliminary results of the tomographic inversion correspond well with the findings of earlier studies from the field site imaging the same geological features as

A capability is developed for monitoring tracer water movement in the three-dimensional Goddard Institute for Space Science Atmospheric General Circulation Model (GCM). A typical experiment with the tracer water model follows water evaporating from selected grid squares and determines where this water first returns to the Earth's surface as precipitation or condensate, thereby providing information on the lateral scales of hydrological transport in the GCM. Through a comparison of model results with observations in nature, inferences can be drawn concerning real world water transport. Tests of the tracer water model include a comparison of simulated and observed vertically-integrated vapor flux fields and simulations of atomic tritium transport from the stratosphere to the oceans. The inter-annual variability of the tracer water model results is also examined.

This report describes a series of numerical simulations of tracertests that were performed in a fracture zone (the H-zone) at the Stripa Mine in Sweden. The tracer simulations are bases on Equivalent Discontinuum models which were developed bases on geophysical measurements and hydraulic interference data (Long et al., 1992). The transport simulations are calibrated to one set of saline tracer breakthrough curves (from the first radar/saline experiment, RSI) and these calibrated models are used to predict another series of breakthrough curves. Predicted breakthrough curves can be compared to the actual data and simulated snapshots'' of concentration in the plan of the fracture zone can be compared to radar difference tomograms made during the saline tracer experiments.

This report describes a series of numerical simulations of tracertests that were performed in a fracture zone (the H-zone) at the Stripa Mine in Sweden. The tracer simulations are bases on Equivalent Discontinuum models which were developed bases on geophysical measurements and hydraulic interference data (Long et al., 1992). The transport simulations are calibrated to one set of saline tracer breakthrough curves (from the first radar/saline experiment, RSI) and these calibrated models are used to predict another series of breakthrough curves. Predicted breakthrough curves can be compared to the actual data and simulated ``snapshots`` of concentration in the plan of the fracture zone can be compared to radar difference tomograms made during the saline tracer experiments.

This report is in two parts one for the fluorinated benzoic acids and one for the fluorinated aliphatic acids. The assumptions made in the report regarding the amount of tracer that will be used, dilution of the tracer during the test and the length of exposure (if any) to individuals drinking the water were made by the authors. These assumptions must really come from the USGS hydrologists in charge of the c-well tracertesting program. Accurate estimates of dilution of the tracer during the test are also important because of solubility limitations of some of the tracers. Three of the difluorobenzoic acids have relatively low solubilities and may not be usable if the dilution estimates are large. The toxicologist that reviewed the document agreed with our conclusion that the fluorinated benzoic and toluic acids do not represent a health hazard if used under the conditions as outlined in the report. We are currently testing 15 of these compounds, and if even if three difluorobenzoic acids cannot be used because of solubility limitations we will still have 12 tracers. The toxicologist felt that the aliphatic fluorinated acids potentially present more of a health risk than the aromatic. This assessment was based on the fact of a known allergic response to halothane anesthetic. This risk, although minimal, is known and he felt that was enough reason to recommend against their use. The authors feel that the toxicologists interpretation of this risk was overly conservative, however, we will not go against his recommendation at this time for the following reasons. First, without the aliphatic compounds we still have 12 to 15 fluorinated aromatic acids which, should be enough for the c-well tests. Second, to get a permit to use aliphatic compounds would undoubtedly require a hearing which could be quite lengthy.

Transient tracers can be used to constrain the Inverse-Gaussian transit time distribution (IG-TTD) and thus provide information about ocean ventilation. Individual transient tracers have different time and application ranges which are defined by their atmospheric history (chronological transient tracers) or their decay rate (radioactive transient tracers). The classification ranges from tracers for highly ventilated water masses, e.g. sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), the decay of Tritium (δ3H) and to some extent also dichlorodifluoromethane (CFC-12) to tracers for less ventilated deep ocean basins, e.g. CFC-12, Argon-39 (39Ar) and radiocarbon (14C). The IG-TTD can be empirically constrained by using transient tracer couples with sufficiently different input functions. Each tracer couple has specific characteristics which influence the application limit of the IG-TTD. Here we provide an overview of commonly used transient tracer couples and their validity areas within the IG-TTD by using the concept of tracer age differences (TAD). New measured CFC-12 and SF6 data from a section along 10° E in the Southern Ocean in 2012 are presented. These are combined with a similar data set of 1998 along 6° E in the Southern Ocean as well as with 39Ar data from the early 1980s in the western Atlantic Ocean and the Weddell Sea for investigating the application limit of the IG-TTD and to analyze changes in ventilation in the Southern Ocean. We found that the IG-TTD can be constrained south to 46° S which corresponds to the Subantarctic Front (SAF) denoting the application limit. The constrained IG-TTD north of the SAF shows a slight increase in mean ages between 1998 and 2012 in the upper 1200 m between 42-46° S. The absence of SF6 inhibits ventilation analyses below this depth. The time lag analysis between the 1998 and 2012 data shows an increase in ventilation down to 1000 m and a steady ventilation between 2000 m-bottom south of the SAF between 51-55° S.

A method has been developed for the atmospheric sampling and analysis of four perfluorocarbon tracer (PFT) compounds simultaneously at the parts per trillion (ppt) level. PFTs were pre-concentrated using adsorbent tube air sampling. Analysis was achieved by thermal desorption (TD) and gas chromatography (GC) with electron capture detection (ECD). Efficient separation of the PFTs from the other sample constituents was achieved by use of a capillary porous layer open tubular (PLOT) GC column without the need to cool the GC oven to sub-ambient temperatures using liquid coolants (M. de Bortoli and E. Pecchio, J. High Resolut. Chromatogr., 1985, 8, 422) or for a catalytic destruction step to remove interferents (T. W. D'Ottavio, R. W. Goodrich and R. N. Dietz, Environ. Sci. Technol., 1986, 20, 100). Results from test field trials with two volatile PFTs that were buried to simulate an underground leaking cable were successful. The PFTs were detected above ground level to pinpoint the leak position. The highest tracer concentrations were detected within 1 m of the simulated leak positions 2 days after tracer burial. The developed technology was applied to an oil leaking high voltage electricity cable. One PFT was added to the cable oil which enabled detection of the oil leak to within 3 m. The reported method has many advantages over currently used leak detection methods and could, in the future, be applied to the detection of underground leaks in a variety of cables and pipes. PMID:11254045

Artificial-fracture design, and fracture characterization during or following stimulation treatment is a central aspect of many EGS ('enhanced' or 'engineered' geothermal system) projects. During the creation or stimulation of an EGS, the injection of fluids, followed by flowback and production stages offers the opportunity for conducting various tracertests in a single-well (SW) configuration, and given the typical operational and time limitations associated with such tests, along with the need to assess treatment success in real time, investigators mostly favour using short-time tracer-test data, rather than awaiting long-term 'tailings' of tracer signals. Late-time tracer signals from SW injection-flowback and production tests have mainly been used for the purpose of multiple-fracture inflow profiling in multi-layer reservoirs [1]. However, the potential of using SW short-term tracer signals for fracture characterization [2, 3] remained little explored as yet. Dealing with short-term flowback signals, we face a certain degree of parameter interplay, leading to ambiguity in fracture parameter inversion from the measured signal of a single tracer. This ambiguity can, to a certain extent, be overcome by - combining different sources of information (lithostratigraphy, and hydraulic monitoring) in order to constrain the variation range of hydrogeologic parameters (matrix and fracture permeability and porosity, fracture size), - using different types of tracers, such as conservative tracer pairs with contrasting diffusivity, or tracers pairs with contrasting sorptivity onto target surfaces. Fracture height is likely to be constrained by lithostratigraphy, while fracture length is supposed to be determinable from hydraulic monitoring (pressure recordings); the flowback rate can be assumed as a known (measurable) quantity during individual-fracture flowback. This leaves us with one or two unknown parameters to be determined from tracer signals: - the transport

The climate models that include a carbon-cycle need the vertical diffusivity of a passive tracer. Since an expression for the latter is not available, it has been common practice to identify it with that of salt. The identification is questionable since T, S are active, not passive tracers. We present the first derivation of the diffusivity of a passive tracer in terms of Ri (Richardson number) and R ρ (density ratio, ratio of salinity over temperature z-gradients). The following results have emerged: The passive tracer diffusivity is an algebraic function of Ri, R ρ. In doubly stable regimes (DS, ∂ T/∂z > 0, ∂S/∂ z < 0), the passive scalar diffusivity is nearly the same as that of salt/heat for any values of R ρ < 0 and Ri > 0. In DC regimes (diffusive convection, ∂ T/∂ z < 0, ∂ S/∂ z < 0, R ρ > 1), the passive scalar diffusivity is larger than that of salt. At Ri = O(1), it can be more than twice as large. In SF regimes (salt fingers, ∂ T/∂ z > 0, ∂ S/∂ z > 0, R ρ < 1), the passive scalar diffusivity is smaller than that of salt. At Ri = O(1), it can be less than half of it. The passive tracer diffusivity predicted at the location of NATRE (North Atlantic Tracer Release Experiment) is discussed. Perhaps the most relevant conclusion is that the common identification of the tracer diffusivity with that of salt is valid only in DS regimes. In the Southern Ocean, where there is the largest CO 2 absorption, the dominant regime is diffusive convection discussed in (c) above.

The climate models that include a carbon-cycle need the vertical diffusivity of a passive tracer. Since an expression for the latter is not available, it has been common practice to identify it with that of salt. The identification is questionable since T, S are active, not passive tracers. We present the first derivation of the diffusivity of a passive tracer in terms of Ri (Richardson number) and Rq (density ratio, ratio of salinity over temperature z-gradients). The following results have emerged: (a) The passive tracer diffusivity is an algebraic function of Ri, Rq. (b) In doubly stable regimes (DS, partial derivative of T with respect to z > 0, partial derivative of S with respect to z < 0), the passive scalar diffusivity is nearly the same as that of salt/heat for any values of Rq < 0 and Ri > 0. (c) In DC regimes (diffusive convection, partial derivative of T with respect to z < 0, partial derivative of S with respect to z < 0, Rq > 1), the passive scalar diffusivity is larger than that of salt. At Ri = O(1), it can be more than twice as large. (d) In SF regimes (salt fingers, partial derivative of T with respect to z > 0, partial derivative of S with respect to z > 0, Rq < 1), the passive scalar diffusivity is smaller than that of salt. At Ri = O(1), it can be less than half of it. (e) The passive tracer diffusivity predicted at the location of NATRE (North Atlantic Tracer Release Experiment) is discussed. (f) Perhaps the most relevant conclusion is that the common identification of the tracer diffusivity with that of salt is valid only in DS regimes. In the Southern Ocean, where there is the largest CO2 absorption, the dominant regime is diffusive convection discussed in (c) above.

The 24-hour surface concentrations of several perfluorocarbon tracer gases measured during the 1987 Across North America Tracer Experiment (ANATEX) provided a unique continental-scale data set with which to evaluate long-range transport and diffusion models. One such model, a mul...

SummaryThis paper presents modeling analyses of long term infiltration and tracertests in fractured tuffs at Yucca Mountain, NV, USA. The experiments were conducted on a 20 m thick tuff section in a flyover formed by two exploratory tunnels. The infiltration test last for 870 days. Both measured infiltration and seepage show significant temporal and spatial variations. The tracertest used inorganic tracers (I -, Br -, F -) and organic tracers (fluorobenzoic acids) released 559 days after the infiltration test started. Leaching from dry salts from fracture walls was found to have affected tracer breakthroughs. The unsaturated flow was evaluated by optimizing 45 parameter values in a three-dimensional model, which accounts for fracture-matrix interaction and heterogeneous hydraulic properties in a column-based scheme. The field data are valuable asset to evaluate the modeling approaches for fractured rocks and the relative importance of the matrix diffusion process. Results show that matrix diffusion is an important process for transport, and that effective matrix-diffusion coefficients at the field-scale are larger than those at the laboratory-scale for the solutes.

The 24-hour surface concentrations of several perfluorocarbon tracer gases measured during the 1987 Across North America Tracer Experiment (ANATEX) provided a unique continental-scale data set with which to evaluate long-range transport and diffusion models. One such model, a multilayer Lagrangian model, was evaluated in the ANATEX Model Evaluation Study (AMES) by comparing distributions and time series of calculated and measured tracer concentrations at bands of sampling sites nearly equidistant from one of the two tracer release sites and by computing spatial differences in the concentration-weighted centroids of 20, 24-hour tracer footprints or composite plumes. The results for this model indicated that it overemphasized the effects of the stronger upper-level winds. In spite of the bias in transport speed, the distributions of the calculated and measured concentrations were quite similar.

Groundwater dating tracers are an essential tool for analyzing hydrologic conditions in groundwater systems. Commonly used tracers for dating post-1940's groundwater include sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), 3H-3He, and other isotopic tracers (85Kr, δ2H and δ18O isotopes, etc.). Each tracer carries a corresponding set of advantages and limitations imposed by field, analytical, and interpretive methods. Increasing the number available tracers is appealing, particularly if they possess inert chemical properties and unique temporal emission histories from other tracers. Atmospherically derived halogenated trace gases continue to hold untapped potential for new tracers, as they are generally inert and their emission histories are well documented. SF5CF3, and CFC-13 were previously shown to have application as dating tracers, though their low mixing ratios and low solubility require large amounts of water to be degassed for their quantification. Two related groups of compounds, hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are hypothesized to be potential age tracers, having similar mixing ratios to the CFCs and relatively high solubility. However, these compounds yield gas chromatography electron capture detector (GC-ECD) responses that are 10-2 -10-5 less than CFC-12, making purge and trap or field stripping GC-ECD approaches impractical. Therefore, in order to use dissolved HCFCs and HFCs as age tracers, different approaches are needed. To solve this problem, we developed an analytical method that uses an atomic emission detector (GC-AED) in place of an ECD to detect fluorinated compounds. In contrast to the ECD, the AED is a universally sensitive, highly linear, elementally specific detector. The new GC-AED system is being used to measure chlorodifluoromethane (HCFC-22), 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane (HFC-134a), and other fluorinated compounds in one liter water samples to study their potential as age dating tracers. HCFC-22 is a

Designing an efficient well field for an aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) project requires measuring local groundwater flow parameters as well as estimating horizontal and vertical inhomogeneity. Effective porosity determines the volume of aquifer needed to store a given volume of heated or chilled water. Ground-water flow velocity governs the migration of the thermal plume, and dispersion and heat exchange along the flow path reduces the thermal intensity of the recovered plume. Stratigraphic variations in the aquifer will affect plume dispersion, may bias the apparent rate of migration of the plume, and can prevent efficient hydraulic communication between wells. Single-well tracer methods using a conservative flow tracer such as bromide, along with pumping tests and water-level measurements, provide a rapid and cost-effective means for estimating flow parameters. A drift-and-pumpback tracertest yields effective porosity and flow velocity. Point-dilution tracertesting, using new instrumentation for downhole tracer measurement and a new method for calibrating the point-dilution test itself, yields depth-discrete hydraulic conductivity as it is affected by stratigraphy, and can be used to estimate well transmissivity. Experience in conducting both drift-and-pumpback and point-dilution tests at three different test sites has yielded important information that highlights both the power and the limitations of the single-well tracer methods. These sites are the University of Alabama Student Recreation Center (UASRC) ATES well field and the VA Medical Center (VA) ATES well field, both located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and the Hanford bioremediation test site north of Richland, Washington.

Hydrazide-derivative tracers of different molecular weights have been synthesized for use in the electron microscopical detection of sodium periodate-oxidized sialyl residues of glycoconjugates in various tissues and cells. Haemundecapeptide hydrazide, horseradish peroxidase hydrazide, and Limulus polyphemus haemocyanin hydrazide were obtained by coupling adipic acid dihydrazide to the tracers with the aid of water-soluble carbodiimide. The enzymatic tracers thus prepared retained their peroxidatic activity. On conversion to the hydrazide derivative, the haemocyanin molecule dissociated into its hexameric subunits. In order to test by transmission electron microscopy the ability of the conjugates to bind to the sialoglycoconjugates of endothelial cell surfaces, each tracer was perfused in situ into rat pancreatic vasculature previously oxidized with 1 mM sodium periodate. The three tracers characteristically labelled the various microdomains of the luminal cell coat of the capillary endothelial cell. The electron opacity of the haemocyanin subunits allowed their easy detection when bound to the cell surface or to components of the extracellular matrix. The bound markers were not displaced by a high ionic strength buffer, and did not label desialylated cell surfaces. These results indicate that the three hydrazide-derivative tracers may be useful tools for the electron microscopical detection of cellular and extracellular sialoglycoconjugates. PMID:3597134

Typhoon-induced flooding causes water overflow in a river channel, which results in general and bridge scour and soil erosion, thus leading to bridge failure, debris flow and landslide collapse. Therefore, dynamic measurement technology should be developed to assess scour in channels and landslide as a disaster-prevention measure against bridge failure and debris flow. This paper presents a wireless tracer that enables monitoring general scour in river channels and soil erosion in hillsides. The wireless tracer comprises a wireless high-power radio modem, various electronic components, and a self-designed printed circuit board that are all combined with a 9-V battery pack and an auto switch. The entire device is sealed in a jar by silicon. After it was modified, the wireless tracer underwent the following tests for practical applications: power continuation and durability, water penetration, and signal transmission during floating. A regression correlation between the wireless tracer's transmission signal and distance was also established. This device can be embedded at any location where scouring is monitored, and, in contrast to its counterparts that detect scour depth by identifying and analyzing received signals, it enables real-time observation of the scouring process. In summary, the wireless tracer developed in this study provides a dynamic technology for real-time monitoring of scouring (or erosion) and forecasting of landslide hazards. Keywords: wireless tracer; scour; real-time monitoring; landslide hazard.

We develop two general methods to infer the gravitational potential of a system using steady-state tracers, i.e. tracers with a time-independent phase-space distribution. Combined with the phase-space continuity equation, the time independence implies a universal orbital probability density function (oPDF) dP(λ|orbit) ∝ dt, where λ is the coordinate of the particle along the orbit. The oPDF is equivalent to Jeans theorem, and is the key physical ingredient behind most dynamical modelling of steady-state tracers. In the case of a spherical potential, we develop a likelihood estimator that fits analytical potentials to the system and a non-parametric method (`phase-mark') that reconstructs the potential profile, both assuming only the oPDF. The methods involve no extra assumptions about the tracer distribution function and can be applied to tracers with any arbitrary distribution of orbits, with possible extension to non-spherical potentials. The methods are tested on Monte Carlo samples of steady-state tracers in dark matter haloes to show that they are unbiased as well as efficient. A fully documented C/PYTHON code implementing our method is freely available at a GitHub repository linked from http://icc.dur.ac.uk/data/#oPDF.

Gas tracers are useful investigative tools in the study of reaeration and the fate of volatile organic contaminants in many natural streams. They enable the direct measurement of a variety of stream parameters, including the gas exchange rates between the stream and the atmosphere, as well as the spreading rate for dissolved pollutants downstream of a discharge point or spill site. The air-water mass transfer coefficients, dispersion coefficients, and mean residence times in two experimental streams and one natural stream are measured using a variation of the standard volatile tracer-dye technique. Sulfur hexafluoride (SF{sub 6}) is used as the volatile tracer and rhodamine WT is used as the conservative tracer. The low limit of quantification of SF{sub 6} makes it possible to inject SF{sub 6}-rich water into many streams and avoid complications with dosing a stream with a gaseous tracer. The experimental methods are described in detail. The SF{sub 6} measurements were extremely precise, producing smooth concentration time curves. The SF{sub 6} measurements collected in side-by-side experimental channels yielded similar values of the gas transfer coefficient.

The thermal stability of indium tracer chelated with organic ligands ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) was measured for reservoir temperatures of 150, 200, and 240 C. Measurements of the soluble indium concentration was made as a function of time by neutron activation analysis. From the data, approximate thermal decomposition rates were estimated. At 150 C, both chelated tracers were stable over the experimental period of 20 days. At 200 C, the InEDTA concentration remained constant for 16 days, after which the thermal decomposition occurred at a measured rate constant of k = 0.09 d{sup -1}. The thermal decomposition of InNTA at 200 C showed a first order reaction with a measured rate constant of k = 0.16 d{sup -1}. At 240 C, both indium chelated tracers showed rapid decomposition with rate constants greater than 1.8 d{sup -1}. The data indicate that for geothermal reservoir with temperatures up to about 200 C, indium chelated tracers can be used effectively for transit times of at least 20 days. These experiments were run without reservoir rock media, and do not account for concomitant loss of indium tracer by adsorption processes.

Field experiments at Montana State University are conducted for the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the Zero Emissions Research and Technology Center (ZERT) to test and verify monitoring techniques for carbon capture and storage (CCS). A controlled release of CO 2 with an added perfluorocarbon tracer was conducted in July 2009 in a multi-laboratory study of atmospheric transport and detection technologies. Tracer plume dispersion was measured with various meteorological conditions using a tethered balloon system with Multi-Tube Remote Samplers (MTRS) at elevations of 10 m, 20 m, and 40 m above ground level (AGL), as well as a ground-based portable tower with monitors containing sorbent material to collect the tracer at 1 m, 2 m, 3 m, and 4 m AGL. Researchers designed a horizontal grid of sampling locations centered at the tracer plume source, with the tower positioned at 10 m and 30 m in both upwind and downwind directions, and the MTRS spaced at 50 m and 90 m downwind and 90 m upwind. Tracer was consistently detected at elevated concentrations at downwind sampling locations. With very few exceptions, higher tracer concentrations correlated with lower elevations. Researchers observed no statistical difference between sampling at 50 m and 90 m downwind at the same elevation. The US EPA AERMOD model applied using site-specific information predicted transport and dispersion of the tracer. Model results are compared to experimental data from the 2009 ZERT experiment. Successful characterization of the tracer plume simulated by the ZERT experiment is considered a step toward demonstrating the feasibility of remote sampling with unmanned aerial systems (UAS's) at future sequestration sites.

Naturally occurring 222-radon in ground water can potentially be used as an in situ partitioning tracer to characterize dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) saturations. The static method involves comparing radon concentrations in water samples from DNAPL-contaminated and non-contaminated portions of an aquifer. During a push-pull test, a known volume of test solution (radon-free water containing a conservation tracer) is first injected (''pushed'') into a well; flow is then reversed and the test solution/groundwater mixture is extracted (''pulled'') from the same well. In the presence of NAPL radon transport is retarded relative to the conservative tracer. Assuming linear equilibrium partitioning, retardation factors for radon can be used to estimate NAPL saturations.The utility of this methodology was evaluated in laboratory and field settings.

Microrheological measurements prove to be suitable to identify rheological parameters of biopharmaceutical solutions. These give information about the flow characteristics but also about the interactions and network structures in protein solutions. For the microrheological measurement tracer particles are required. Due to their specific surface characteristic not all are suitable for reliable measurement results in biopharmaceutical systems. In the present work a screening of melamine, PMMA, polystyrene and surface modified polystyrene as tracer particles were investigated at various protein solution conditions. The surface characteristics of the screened tracer particles were evaluated by zeta potential measurements. Furthermore each tracer particle was used to determine the dynamic viscosity of lysozyme solutions by microrheology and compared to a standard. The results indicate that the selection of the tracer particle had a strong impact on the quality of the microrheological measurement dependent on pH and additive type. Surface modified polystyrene was the only tracer particle that yielded good microrheological results for all tested conditions. The study indicated that the electrostatic surface charge of the tracer particle had a minor impact than its hydrophobicity. This characteristic was the crucial surface property that needs to be considered for the selection of a suitable tracer particle to achieve high measurement accuracy. PMID:27025292

Tracertests are generally regarded as being the most reliable and efficient means of gathering subsurface hydraulic information. This is true for all types of aquifers, but especially so for karst and fractured-rock aquifers. Qualitative tracing tests have been conventionally em...

An archive for micrometeorological and tracer dispersion data has been developed by Battelle, Pacific Northwest Laboratories for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The archive is designed to make the results of extensive field tests readily accessible to EPA for model test...

The diffusion of fluorescent tracers can be studied using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). This powerful method offers the possibility to monitor very small tracers at low concentrations, down to single molecules. Furthermore it possesses a sub-femtoliter detection volume that can be precisely positioned in a heterogeneous environment to probe the local dynamics. Despite its great potential and high versatility in addressing the diffusion and transport properties in complex systems, FCS has been predominantly applied in molecular and cell biology. Here we present some applications that are more relevant for material and soft matter science. First, we study the diffusion of single tracers with molecular sizes in undiluted polymer systems. Next, the diffusion of small molecules and semiconductor nanoparticles (quantum dots) in silica inverse opals is studied and correlated to the size and morphology of the inverse opals. Finally, we show how FCS can be used to measure the diffusion coefficient of nanoparticles at water-oil interfaces.

A low detection limit analytical method was developed to measure a suite of benzoic acid and fluorinated benzoic acid compounds intended for use as tracers for enhanced oil recovery operations. Although the new high performance liquid chromatography separation successfully measured the tracers in an aqueous matrix at low part per billion levels, the low detection limits could not be achieved in oil field water due to interference problems with the hydrocarbon-saturated water using the system's UV detector. Commercial instrument vendors were contacted in an effort to determine if mass spectrometry could be used as an alternate detection technique. The results of their work demonstrate that low part per billion analysis of the tracer compounds in oil field water could be achieved using ultra performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry.

Understanding the mechanics of bed load at the flood scale is necessary to link hydrology to landscape evolution. Here we report on observations of the transport of coarse sediment tracer particles in a cobble-bedded alluvial river and a step-pool tributary, at the individual flood and multi-annual timescales. Tracer particle data for each survey are composed of measured displacement lengths for individual particles, and the number of tagged particles mobilized. For single floods we find that: measured tracer particle displacement lengths are exponentially distributed; the number of mobile particles increases linearly with peak flood Shields stress, indicating partial bed load transport for all observed floods; and modal displacement lengths scale linearly with excess shear velocity. These findings provide quantitative field support for a recently proposed modelling framework based on momentum conservation at the grain scale. Tracer displacement shows a weak correlation with particle size at the individual flood scale, however cumulative travel distance begins to show an inverse relation to grain size when measured over many transport events. The observed spatial sorting of tracers approaches that of the river bed, and is consistent with size-selective deposition models and laboratory experiments. Tracer displacement data for the step-pool and alluvial channels collapse onto a single curve - despite more than an order of magnitude difference in channel slope - when variations of critical Shields stress and flow resistance between the two are accounted for. Results show how bed load dynamics may be predicted from a record of river stage, providing a direct link between climate and sediment transport.

The usefulness of the C-14 tracer in measurements of atmospheric hydroxyl radical concentration is discussed. The apparatus and the experimental conditions of three variations of a radiochemical method of atmosphere analysis are described and analyzed: the Teflon bag static reactor, the flow reactor (used in the Wallops Island tests), and the aircraft OH titration reactor. The procedure for reduction of the aircraft reactor instrument data is outlined. The problems connected with the measurement of hydroxyl radicals are discussed. It is suggested that the gas-phase radioisotope methods have considerable potential in measuring tropospheric impurities present in very low concentrations.

A particulate aerosol tracer which comprises a particulate carrier of sheet silicate composition having a particle size up to one micron, and a cationic dopant chemically absorbed in solid solution in the carrier. The carrier is preferably selected from the group consisting of natural mineral clays such as bentonite, and the dopant is selected from the group consisting of rare earth elements and transition elements. The tracers are dispersed by forming an aqueous salt solution with the dopant present as cations, dispersing the carriers in the solution, and then atomizing the solution under heat sufficient to superheat the solution droplets at a level sufficient to prevent reagglomeration of the carrier particles.

Using the method of smoothed particle hydrodynamics, we have modeled the formation of a compact group of galaxies with sufficient resolution to trace galaxies. Radiative cooling allows the baryons to dissipate their thermal energy and collapse to overdensities characteristic of real galaxies. With their cross section greatly reduced, these galaxy tracers remain distinct during cluster formation while their dark matter halos merge. In addition, the number density, the mass distribution function, and even the morphology of these objects are similar to those of observed galaxies. A viable population of galaxy tracers can be unambiguously defined.

Four fluorescent particle tracer experiments were conducted during the July 1979 ASCOT experiment in the Anderson Creek Valley of northern California. The purpose of the experiment was to examine the transport and elongation of a plume traveling in the Anderson Creek nocturnal drainage flow and investigate the interaction of the Anderson Creek and Putah Creek flow fields. Sequential samples of tracer material at three downwind locations in Anderson Creek gave effective transport velocities of 1 to 2 m/s and showed an approximately linear relationship between plume elongation and travel distance. Integrated samples taken in both the Anderson Creek and Putah Creek air sheds indicated considerable interaction between the two flow fields.

Injection of atmospheric air mixed with cold water has been occurring since 1982 at the Los Azufres geothermal field. Several chemical and thermodynamical evidences show that air injection into this fractured hydrothermal system could be considered as a long term natural tracertest. Nitrogen and Argon separated from the air mixture migrate, under the action of the induced injection-extraction gradient, from reinjection sectors to production zones following preferential paths closely related to high permeability conduits. A coarse numerical estimation of the average permeability tensor existing at Tejamaniles, the southern sector, explains the unsuccessful recovery of the artificial tracertests performed in past years: the anisotropic nature of the fractured volcanic rock would demand considerably quantities of tracer in order to be detected at the producing wells, especially when fluid extraction was low. At the same time concentrations of calcium, cesium, chloride, potassium, rubidium and sodium, are increasing in the liquid produced by the oldest wells of this field's sector.

The 1981 Idaho Field Experiment was conducted in southeast Idaho over the Upper Snake River Plain. Nine test-day case studies were conducted between July 15 and 30, 1981. Releases of SF/sub 6/ gaseous tracer were made for 8-hour periods from 46 m above ground. Tracer was sampled hourly, for 12 sequential hours, at about 100 locations within an area 24 km square. Also, a single total integrated sample, of about 30 hours duration, was collected at approximately 100 sites within an area 48 by 72 km (using 6 km spacings). Extensive tower profiles of meteorology at the release point were collected. RAWINSONDES, RABALS and PIBALS were collected at 3 to 5 sites. Horizontal, low-altitude winds were monitored using the INEL mesonet. SF/sub 6/ tracer plume releases were marked with co-located oil fog releases and bi-hourly sequential launches of tetroon pairs. Aerial LIDAR observations of the oil fog plume and airborne samples of SF/sub 6/ were collected. High-altitude aerial photographs of daytime plumes were also collected. Volume III contains descriptions of the nine intensive measurement days. General meteorological conditions are described, trajectories and their relationships to analyses of gaseous tracer data are discussed, and overviews of test day cases are presented. Calculations using the ARLFRD MESODIF model are included and related to the gaseous tracer data. Finally, a summary and a list of recommendations are presented. 11 references, 39 figures, 4 tables.

Characterization of the hyporheic zone is of critical importance for understanding stream ecology, contaminant transport, and groundwater‐surface water interaction. A salt water tracertest was used to probe the hyporheic zone of a recently re‐engineered portion of Crabby Creek, a stream located near Philadelphia, PA. The tracer solution was tracked through a 13.5 meter segment of the stream using both a network of 25 wells sampled every 5–15 minutes and time‐lapse electrical resistivity tomographs collected every 11 minutes for six hours, with additional tomographs collected every 100 minutes for an additional 16 hours. The comparison of tracer monitoring methods is of keen interest because tracertests are one of the few techniques available for characterizing this dynamic zone, and logistically it is far easier to collect resistivity tomographs than to install and monitor a dense network of wells. Our results show that resistivity monitoring captured the essential shape of the breakthrough curve and may indicate portions of the stream where the tracer lingered in the hyporheic zone. Time‐lapse resistivity measurements, however, represent time averages over the period required to collect a tomographic data set, and spatial averages over a volume larger than captured by a well sample. Smoothing by the resistivity data inversion algorithm further blurs the resulting tomograph; consequently resistivity monitoring underestimates the degree of fine‐scale heterogeneity in the hyporheic zone.

Trace species such as carbon monoxide, ozone, and very short-lived halocarbons in the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL) are important for chemistry and the radiation budget. Also, these species can be used to diagnose transport pathways into and through the TTL. TTL tracer concentrations are controlled primarily by input from extreme deep convective systems that rapidly transport air from the lower troposphere into the TTL, rapid horizontal transport, and slow vertical transport, with the rapid convective transport directly to the uppermost TTL being particularly important for species with short lifetimes. The extreme deep convection overshooting to near the tropical tropopause is poorly represented by convective parameterizations used in global models. Here, we investigate tracer transport using trajectories along with explicit calculations of convective influence. The times and locations of convective influence on the trajectory parcels are determined by tracing the trajectories through two-dimensional, three-hourly fields of convective cloud top height from geostationary satellite and TRMM. The tracer simulations are constrained by measurements from the Aura MLS and ACE-FTS satellites, as well as measurements from recent high-altitude aircraft campaigns. The model is used to evaluate the sensitivity of TTL tracer concentrations to diabatic heating rate (approximately in balance with vertical motion) and the occurrence frequency of extreme convection.

Evaluation of blood supply of different organs relies on labeling blood with a suitable tracer. The tracer kinetics is linear: Tracer concentration at an observation site is a linear response to an input somewhere upstream the arterial flow. The corresponding impulse response functions are currently treated empirically without incorporating the relation to the vascular morphology of an organ. In this work we address this relation for the first time. We demonstrate that the form of the response function in the entire arterial tree is reduced to that of individual vessel segments under approximation of good blood mixing at vessel bifurcations. The resulting expression simplifies significantly when the geometric scaling of the vascular tree is taken into account. This suggests a new way to access the vascular morphology in vivo using experimentally determined response functions. However, it is an ill-posed inverse problem as demonstrated by an example using measured arterial spin labeling in large brain arteries. We further analyze transport in individual vessel segments and demonstrate that experimentally accessible tracer concentration in vessel segments depends on the measurement principle. Explicit expressions for the response functions are obtained for the major middle part of the arterial tree in which the blood flow in individual vessel segments can be treated as laminar. When applied to the analysis of regional cerebral blood flow measurements for which the necessary arterial input is evaluated in the carotid arteries, present theory predicts about 20% underestimation, which is in agreement with recent experimental data. PMID:25299048

Neural networks are ideally suited to describe the spatial and temporal dependence of tracer-tracer correlations. The neural network performs well even in regions where the correlations are less compact and normally a family of correlation curves would be required. For example, the CH4-N2O correlation can be well described using a neural network trained with the latitude, pressure, time of year, and CH4 volume mixing ratio (v.m.r.). In this study a neural network using Quickprop learning and one hidden layer with eight nodes was able to reproduce the CH4-N2O correlation with a correlation co- efficient of 0.9995. Such an accurate representation of tracer-tracer correlations allows more use to be made of long-term datasets to constrain chemical models. Such as the dataset from the Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) which has continuously observed CH4, (but not N2O) from 1991 till the present. The neural network Fortran code used is available for download.

A test was conducted in a meandering 9.6-km reach of the Chenango River, New York, to assess the feasibility of a two-dimensional steady-state propane-gas tracer method as a means of estimating in situ reaeration coefficients. It is concluded that the method, which combines an instantaneous release of dye tracer with a long duration release of propane gas tracer, is very feasible for determining gas-desorption coefficients and wind effects in a wide river. However, the method does not appear to be ready for immediate operational applications. (USGS)

The concentration distributions of geochemical tracers in a subsurface reservoir can be used as an indication of the reservoir flow paths and constituent fluid origin. In this case, we are motivated by the origin of marked geochemical gradients in the Bravo Dome natural CO2 reservoir in northeastern New Mexico. This reservoir contains 99% CO2 with various trace noble gas components and overlies the formation brine in a sloping aquifer. It is thought that magmatic CO2 entered the reservoir, and displaced the brine. This displacement created gradients in the concentrations of the noble gases. Two models to explain noble gas partitioning in two-phase flow are presented here. The first model assumes that the noble gases act as tracers and uses a first order non-linear partial differential equation to compute the volume fraction of each phase along the displament path. A one-way coupled partial differential equation determines the tracer concentration, which has no effect on the overall flow or phase saturations. The second model treats each noble gas as a regular component resulting in a three-component, two-phase system. As the noble gas injection concentration goes to zero, we see the three-component system behave like the one-way coupled system of the first model. Both the analytical and numerical solutions are presented for these models. For the process of a gas displacing a liquid, we see that a noble gas tracer with greater preference for the gas phase, such as Helium, will move more quickly along the flowpath than a heavier tracer that will more easily enter the liquid phase, such as Argon. When we include partial miscibility of both the major and trace components, these differences in speed are shown in a bank of the tracer at the saturation front. In the three component model, the noble gas bank has finite width and concentration. In the limit where the noble gas is treated as a tracer, the width of the bank is zero and the concentration increases linearly

Groundwater dating is an important tool to assess groundwater resources in regards to direction and time scale of groundwater flow and recharge and to assess contamination risks and manage remediation. To infer groundwater age information, a combination of different environmental tracers, such as tritium and SF6, are commonly used. However ambiguous age interpretations are often faced, due to a limited set of available tracers and limitations of each tracer method when applied alone. There is a need for additional, complementary groundwater age tracers. We recently discovered that Halon-1301, a water soluble and entirely anthropogenic gaseous substance, may be a promising candidate [Beyer et al, 2014]. Halon-1301 can be determined along with SF6, SF5CF3 and CFC-12 in groundwater using a gas chromatography setup with attached electron capture detector developed by Busenberg and Plummer [2008]. Halon-1301 has not been assessed in groundwater. This study assesses the behaviour of Halon-1301 in water and its suitability as a groundwater age tracer. We determined Halon-1301 in 17 groundwater and various modern (river) waters sites located in 3 different groundwater systems in the Wellington Region, New Zealand. These waters have been previously dated with tritium, CFC-12, CFC-11 and SF6 with mean residence times ranging from 0.5 to over 100 years. The waters range from oxic to anoxic and some show evidence of CFC contamination or degradation. This allows us to assess the different properties affecting the suitability of Halon-1301 as groundwater age tracer, such as its conservativeness in water and local contamination potential. The samples are analysed for Halon-1301 and SF6simultaneously, which allows identification of issues commonly faced when using gaseous tracers such as contamination with modern air during sampling. Overall we found in the assessed groundwater samples Halon-1301 is a feasible new groundwater tracer. No sample indicated significantly elevated

Absorption of tracer to the aquifer material is among the most important factors which should be considered when a tracing program is considered. In this study, the absorption of the tracer into the porous media is analyzed experimentally for some of the most important and applied tracers as uranine, rhodamine B, eosin, potassium permanganate, sodium chloride and potassium chloride. For each tracer, effect of initial tracer concentration and percentage of fine grain sediments on tracer absorption in porous media is analyzed. According to the final results, rhodamine B and potassium permanganate have the less resistance against absorption to aquifer material, whilst eosin and uranine are the most resistant tracers among the examined ones. Key Words: Tracer, Absorption, Aquifer, Column Method

-conservativeness results showed that the predictions of median source contributions were negatively affected whereas uncertainty was only marginally impacted by the corrupted tracer. Improvement of uncertainty resulted from increasing the number of tracers in both the perfect and corrupted datasets. FR2000 was capable of detecting non-conservative tracer behaviour within the range of mean source values, therefore, it provided a more sensitive screening technique than assessing target values against source data. Non-conservative behaviour was identified in field data however only at a significant degree of corruption. Whilst further testing is required to determine the impact of individual and combined uncertainty components on synthetic, controlled experiments and field data, this study provides a framework for future assessment of uncertainty in un-mixing models.

Steady increase of groundwater abstraction and nitrate concentrations in groundwater due to agricultural and industrial practices is a major concern for groundwater availability and deterioration of groundwater quality in New Zealand. Studies on groundwater in the Waimea Plains (for example) have shown effects of nitrate input from both diffuse and point sources since 1940. Groundwaters in gravel aquifers under Christchurch have also been studied since 1970 to characterise their flowpaths and recharge sources. In these and other cases, the mixing of waters from different recharge sources following different flow paths can be determined with the use of various tracers and the future course of nitrate concentration in the groundwaters predicted. The input of radionuclides to hydrological systems from nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s and 60s revealed that outflows from such systems often comprise mixtures of water with very wide ranges of ages. Many authors have described methods of deconvolving such outputs with the use of lumped parameter models (LPMs). LPMs are evaluated using specialized software or Excel spreadsheets to compute simulations to measurements of system outputs and therefore estimate parameters of the age distribution. Excel allows easy modification of the code to enable application to individual hydrological features and for a variety of isotopes and chemicals. For the New Zealand studies, Excel spreadsheets with coded Visual Basic functions are used to deduce age distributions based on stable isotope, SF6, CFCs, 3H and 14C data (in order of ages). In particular, 3H is becoming increasingly useful as an age tracer due to the decrease of ambiguity from nuclear testing provided that the measurements can be made with high accuracy (Stewart et al., 2012).These age distributions allow us to derive the input histories of chemicals (e.g. nitrate) and the groundwater recharge sources. In addition, recent developments in modelling groundwater flow and

The Boise Hydrogeophysical Research Site (BHRS) is a research wellfield or field-scale test facility developed in a shallow, coarse, fluvial aquifer with the objectives of supporting (a) development of cost-effective, non- invasive methods for quantitative characterization and imaging methods in heterogeneous aquifers using hydrologic and geophysical techniques; (b) examination of fundamental relationships and processes at multiple scales; (c) testing theories and models for groundwater flow and solute transport; and (d) educating and training the next generation of professionals in multidisciplinary subsurface science and engineering. The design of the wells and the wellfield provide for a wide range of single-well, cross-hole, multiwell and multilevel hydrologic, geophysical, and combined hydrologic-geophysical experiments. Efforts have been focused largely on (a) establishing the 3D distributions of geologic, hydrologic, and geophysical parameters which can then be used as the basis for testing methods to jointly invert hard and soft data to return the "known" 3D K distribution and (b) developing subsurface measurement and imaging methods including static and time-lapse tomographic imaging methods. From this work we have developed a good understanding of the hydrostratigraphic framework of the BHRS as a hierarchical system which includes layers and lenses; this framework is recognized with geologic, hydrologic, radar, seismic, and EM methods and tracertests. Work to date has been conducted by Boise State University with some collaboration and exchange with researchers and students from other institutions. At this point the BHRS is functioning well as a field-scale control volume and test cell in a multiscale heterogeneous aquifer so there is an opportunity to increase the range of both collaborative participation and research activities at the BHRS. In this regard, opportunities exist to investigate and monitor process and property variation in time and space

The generation, insertion, pressurization and use of oil-based tracer particles is qualified for the application in heated flow facilities, typically hypersonic facilities such as Ludwieg tubes. The operative challenges are to ensure a sub-critical amount of seeding material in the heated part, to qualify the methods that are used to generate the seeding, pressurize it to storage tube pressure, as well as to test specific oil types. The mass of the seeding material is held below the lower explosion limit such that operation is safe. The basis for the tracers is qualified in off-situ particle size measurements. In the main part different methods and operational procedures are tested with respect to their ability to generate a suitable amount of seeding in the test section. For the best method the relaxation time of the tracers is qualified by the oblique shock wave test. The results show that the use of a special temperature resistant lubricant oil "Plantfluid" is feasible under the conditions of a Mach-6 Ludwieg tube with heated storage tube. The method gives high-quality tracers with high seeding densities. Although the experimental results of the oblique shock wave test differ from theoretical predictions of relaxation time, still the relaxation time of 3.2 μs under the more dense tunnel conditions with 18 bar storage tube pressure is low enough to allow the use of the seeding for meaningful particle image velocimetry studies.

Bacterial and nutrient contamination from anthropogenic sources impacts fresh and marine waters, reducing water quality and restricting recreational and commercial activities. In many cases the source of this contamination is ambiguous, and a tracer or set of tracers linking contamination to source would be valuable. In this work, the effectiveness of utilizing a suite of Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) as tracers of bacteria from human septic system effluent is investigated. Field sampling was performed at more than 20 locations over approximately 18 months and analyzed for a suite of CECs and fecal coliform bacteria. The sampling locations included seeps and small freshwater discharges to the shoreline. Sites were selected and grouped according to level of impact by septic systems as determined by previous field sampling programs. A subset of selected locations had been positively identified as being impacted by effluent from failing septic systems through dye testing. The CECs were selected based on their predominant use, their frequency of use, and putative fate and transport properties. In addition, two rounds of focused sampling were performed at selected sites to characterize short-term variations in CEC and fecal coliform concentrations, and to evaluate environmental persistence following source correction activities. The results indicate that a suite of common use compounds are suitable as generalized tracers of bacterial contamination from septic systems and that fate and transport properties are important in tracer selection. Highly recalcitrant or highly labile compounds likely follow different loss profiles in the subsurface compared to fecal bacteria and are not suitable tracers. The use of more than one tracer compound is recommended due to source variability of septic systems and to account for variations in the subsurface condition. In addition, concentrations of some CECs were measured in receiving waters at levels which suggested the

In this paper, we investigate the impact of chemical interactions, in the form of mineral precipitation and dissolution reactions, on tracer transport in fractured rocks. When a tracer is introduced in fractured rocks, it moves through the fracture primarily by advection and it also enters the stagnant water of the surrounding rock matrix through diffusion. Inside the porous rock matrix, the tracer chemically interacts with the solid materials of the rock, where it can precipitate depending on the local equilibrium conditions. Alternatively, it can be dissolved from the solid phase of the rock matrix into the matrix pore water, diffuse into the flowing fluids of the fracture and is advected out of it. We show that such chemical interactions between the fluid and solid phases have significant impact on tracer transport in fractured rocks. We invoke the dual-porosity conceptualization to represent the fractured rocks and develop a semi-analytical solution to describe the transient transport of tracers in interacting fluid-rock systems. To test the accuracy and stability of the semi-analytical solution, we compare it with simulation results obtained with the TOUGHREACT simulator. We observe that, in a chemically interacting system, the tracer breakthrough curve exhibits a pseudo-steady state, where the tracer concentration remains more or less constant over a finite period of time. Such a pseudo-steady condition is not observed in a non-reactive fluid-rock system. We show that the duration of the pseudo-state depends on the physical and chemical parameters of the system, and can be exploited to extract information about the fractured rock system, such as the fracture spacing and fracture-matrix interface area. PMID:24077359

In this paper, we investigate the impact of chemical interactions, in the form of mineral precipitation and dissolution reactions, on tracer transport in fractured rocks. When a tracer is introduced in fractured rocks, it moves through the fracture primarily by advection and it also enters the stagnant water of the surrounding rock matrix through diffusion. Inside the porous rock matrix, the tracer chemically interacts with the solid materials of the rock, where it can precipitate depending on the local equilibrium conditions. Alternatively, it can be dissolved from the solid phase of the rock matrix into the matrix pore water, diffuse into the flowing fluids of the fracture and is advected out of it. We show that such chemical interactions between the fluid and solid phases have significant impact on tracer transport in fractured rocks. We invoke the dual-porosity conceptualization to represent the fractured rocks and develop a semi-analytical solution to describe the transient transport of tracers in interacting fluid-rock systems. To test the accuracy and stability of the semi-analytical solution, we compare it with simulation results obtained with the TOUGHREACT simulator. We observe that, in a chemically interacting system, the tracer breakthrough curve exhibits a pseudo-steady state, where the tracer concentration remains more or less constant over a finite period of time. Such a pseudo-steady condition is not observed in a non-reactive fluid-rock system. We show that the duration of the pseudo-state depends on the physical and chemical parameters of the system, and can be exploited to extract information about the fractured rock system, such as the fracture spacing and fracture-matrix interface area.

A number of important applications of radioisotopes and their compounds used as tracers in petroleum industry, metallurgical industry, mechanical industry, chemical industry, electronic industry, hydrology and water conservancy in China are introduced in this paper. The tracer technique applied to entomology is also mentioned. The industrial tracer applications are successful and beneficial in People's Republic of China from the examples given.

We explore the use of efficient streamline-based simulation approaches for modeling partitioning interwell tracertests in hydrocarbon reservoirs. Specifically, we utilize the unique features of streamline models to develop an efficient approach for interpretation and history matching of field tracer response. A critical aspect here is the underdetermined and highly ill-posed nature of the associated inverse problems. We have investigated the relative merits of the traditional history matching ('amplitude inversion') and a novel travel time inversion in terms of robustness of the method and convergence behavior of the solution. We show that the traditional amplitude inversion is orders of magnitude more non-linear and the solution here is likely to get trapped in local minimum, leading to inadequate history match. The proposed travel time inversion is shown to be extremely efficient and robust for practical field applications. The streamline approach is generalized to model water injection in naturally fractured reservoirs through the use of a dual media approach. The fractures and matrix are treated as separate continua that are connected through a transfer function, as in conventional finite difference simulators for modeling fractured systems. A detailed comparison with a commercial finite difference simulator shows very good agreement. Furthermore, an examination of the scaling behavior of the computation time indicates that the streamline approach is likely to result in significant savings for large-scale field applications. We also propose a novel approach to history matching finite-difference models that combines the advantage of the streamline models with the versatility of finite-difference simulation. In our approach, we utilize the streamline-derived sensitivities to facilitate history matching during finite-difference simulation. The use of finite-difference model allows us to account for detailed process physics and compressibility effects. The

In deeper aquifers, only a limited number of boreholes or groundwater monitoring wells is available for aquifer tests. The limited access and the low groundwater flow velocity makes it difficult to conduct classical tracertests for the hydrogeological characterization of deep aquifers. The single-well "push-pull" tracertest ("PP Test") may be a suitable method to investigate the hydrogeological properties and the flow behavior in single-well settings or deeper aquifers. During a PP Test, a test solution that contains a known amount of solutes and a conservative tracer is injected into the aquifer ("push") and extracted afterwards ("pull"). Optionally, the test solution is flushed out of the well and the casing with untreated test solution, a so called "chaser" before being extracted. Between the injection and the extraction phase a drifting or reaction time may be included. The breakthrough of the tracer and the solute compounds during the extraction phase is measured and used for analyses and interpretation of aquifer characteristics. Several PP Tests were performed in a sedimentary coastal basin in northern Hokkaido (Japan). The objective was to study the influence of the test design on the results and to enhance the setup of the single well "push-pull" tracer method by a systematic approach. During the campaign, six different PP Tests were performed, while only single aspects of the setup were varied from test to test. The tests differed in injection and extraction rate (5 L/min and 10 L/min), in the salinity of the injected test solution (brackish water and deionized water) and in the optional use of a chaser solution. The general shapes of the breakthrough curves are similar and a good applicability of this method is assumed for the test side. However, the Uranine mass balances of the different tests show a wide range of recoveries between 65 % and 126 %. The maximal normalized concentrations are in a range between c/c0 = 0.58 and c/c0 = 1.22. Even though

Fine-grained, structured soils are prone to preferential flow along macropores that can enhance vertical migration of surface applied contaminants ("new" solutes) due to water bypassing the soil matrix. This same bypass phenomenon can also inhibit the flushing of in situ salt or other contaminants ("old" solutes), thereby hampering reclamation of previously impacted soils. In all cases, mass exchange between the soil matrix and macropores is a significant control on water and solute movement in the soil profile. The dynamics of these mass exchange processes and the associated transport of both new and old tracers were studied in field- and core-scale experiments on low permeability, macroporous soils. A multi-year investigation of new (DFBA) and old (Cl) tracer transport was completed on two 20 x 20 m test plots within a tile-drained field. Irrigation water was applied to one test plot, while the second plot served as an unirrigated control. Detailed monitoring, including wells, lysimeters, tensiometers, soil cores, tile drains, and electrical resistivity tomography, revealed a comprehensive picture of the hydraulic system response and distribution of chemical tracers over multiple field seasons. A large difference in solute transport within and between seasons was attributed to temporally varying hydrologic (water table and soil moisture) conditions, despite similar total volumes of water application. Time-varying soil hydraulic properties and soil macropore saturation were believed to play a major role, and were explored in more detail with large, intact soil monolith experiments. Two paired-core infiltration experiments were completed using the same volumes of irrigation water, but different irrigation rates and durations. The migration of new (Br, I, and dye) and old (Cl) tracers was monitored throughout the experiments, and the final tracer distribution was characterized by destructive sampling at the conclusion of irrigation. The spatial and temporal

Starting in 2008, a 4-year tracer study was conducted to evaluate ambient changes in groundwater concentrations of a 1,3,6-naphthalene trisulfonate tracer that was added to drill water. Samples were collected under open borehole conditions and after installing a multilevel groundwater monitoring system completed with 11 discrete monitoring zones within dense and fractured basalt and sediment layers in the eastern Snake River aquifer. The study was done in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy to test whether ambient fracture flow conditions were sufficient to remove the effects of injected drill water prior to sample collection. Results from thief samples indicated that the tracer was present in minor concentrations 28 days after coring, but was not present 6 months after coring or 7 days after reaming the borehole. Results from sampling the multilevel monitoring system indicated that small concentrations of the tracer remained in 5 of 10 zones during some period after installation. All concentrations were several orders of magnitude lower than the initial concentrations in the drill water. The ports that had remnant concentrations of the tracer were either located near sediment layers or were located in dense basalt, which suggests limited groundwater flow near these ports. The ports completed in well-fractured and vesicular basalt had no detectable concentrations.

The mass of the dark matter halo of the Milky Way can be estimated by fitting analytical models to the phase-space distribution of dynamical tracers. We test this approach using realistic mock stellar haloes constructed from the Aquarius N-body simulations of dark matter haloes in the Λ cold dark matter cosmology. We extend the standard treatment to include a Navarro-Frenk-White potential and use a maximum likelihood method to recover the parameters describing the simulated haloes from the positions and velocities of their mock halo stars. We find that the estimate of halo mass is highly correlated with the estimate of halo concentration. The best-fitting halo masses within the virial radius, R200, are biased, ranging from a 40 per cent underestimate to a 5 per cent overestimate in the best case (when the tangential velocities of the tracers are included). There are several sources of bias. Deviations from dynamical equilibrium can potentially cause significant bias; deviations from spherical symmetry are relatively less important. Fits to stars at different galactocentric radii can give different mass estimates. By contrast, the model gives good constraints on the mass within the half-mass radius of tracers even when restricted to tracers within 60 kpc. The recovered velocity anisotropies of tracers, β, are biased systematically, but this does not affect other parameters if tangential velocity data are used as constraints.

The use of online monitors for conducting a distribution system tracer study is proving to be an essential tool to accurately understand the flow dynamics in a distribution system. In a series of field testing sponsored by U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Greater ...

The testing of single shell tanks to determine breathing rates. Inert tracer gases helium, and sulfur hexafluoride will be injected into the tanks AX-103, BY-105, C-107 and U-103. Periodic samples will be taken over a three month interval to determine actual headspace breathing rates.

Field and laboratory testing spray nozzles and application systems use spray collectors to assess where the spray deposits once it leaves the spray system. Tracer materials, such as oil and water soluble fluorescent dyes, can be mixed into spray solutions in small amounts with minimal impact on the...

This report presents an analysis of the tracer data from the BULLION forced-gradient experiment (FGE) conducted on Pahute Mesa at the Nevada Test Site from June 2, 1997 through August 28, 1997, for the Underground Test Area (UGTA) Program. It also serves to document the polystyrene microsphere data from the FGE. The FGE involved the injection of solute and colloid tracers into wells ER-20-6 No. 1 and ER-20-6 No. 2 while ER-20-6 No. 3 was pumped at approximately 116 gallons per minute (gpm). The experimental configuration and test design are described briefly in this report; more details are provided elsewhere (IT, 1996, 1997, 1998). The tracer responses in the various wells yielded valuable information about transport processes such as longitudinal dispersion, matrix diffusion and colloid transport in the hydrogeologic system in the vicinity of the BULLION nuclear test cavity. Parameter values describing these processes are derived from the semi-analytical model interpretations presented in this report. A companion report (IT, 1998) presents more detailed numerical modeling interpretations of the solute tracer responses.

An archive for micrometerological and tracer dispersion data has been developed by Battelle, Pacific Northwest Laboratories for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The archive is designed to make the results of extensive field tests readily accessible to EPA for model testi...

Strategies for groundwater protection mostly use vulnerability maps to contamination; therefore, a lot of methods have been developed since the 90's with a particular attention to operational techniques. These easy-to-use methods are based on the superposition of relative rating systems applied to critical hydrogeological factors; their major drawback is the subjectivity of the determination of the rating scale and the weighting coefficients. Thus, in addition to vulnerability mapping, empirical results given by tracertests are often needed to better assess groundwater vulnerability to accidental contamination in complex hydrosystems such as karst aquifers. This means that a lot of data about tracer breakthrough curves (BTC) in karst area are now available for hydrologists. In this context, we propose a physical approach to spatially distributed simulation of tracer BTC based on macrodispersive transport in 1D. A new interpretation of tracertests performed in various media is shown as a validation of our theoretical development. The vulnerability map is then given by the properties of the simulated tracer BTC (modal time, mean residence time, duration over a given concentration threshold etc.). In this way, our method expresses the vulnerability with units, which makes it possible the comparison from one system to another. In addition, previous or new tracertests can be used as a validation of the map for the same hydrological conditions. Even if this methodology is not limited to karsts hydrosystems, this seems particularly suitable for these complex environments for which understanding the origin of accidental contamination is crucial.

Abstract. Diffuse fluorescence tomography requires high contrast-to-background ratios to accurately reconstruct inclusions of interest. This is a problem when imaging the uptake of fluorescently labeled molecularly targeted tracers in tissue, which can result in high levels of heterogeneously distributed background uptake. We present a dual-tracer background subtraction approach, wherein signal from the uptake of an untargeted tracer is subtracted from targeted tracer signal prior to image reconstruction, resulting in maps of targeted tracer binding. The approach is demonstrated in simulations, a phantom study, and in a mouse glioma imaging study, demonstrating substantial improvement over conventional and homogenous background subtraction image reconstruction approaches. PMID:23292612

'Major advances have been made during the past year in research on interwell partitioning tracerstests (PITTs). These advances include: (1) progress on the inverse problem of how to estimate the three-dimensional distribution of NAPL in aquifers from the tracer data, (2) the first ever partitioning tracer experiments in dual porosity media, (3) the first modeling of partitioning tracers in dual porosity media, (4) experiments with complex NAPLs such as coal tar, (5) the development of an accurate and simple method to predict partition coefficients using the equivalent alkane carbon number approach, (6) partitioning tracer experiments in large model aquifers with permeability layers, (7) the first ever analysis of partitioning tracer data to estimate the change in composition of a NAPL before and after remediation, (8) the first ever analysis of partitioning tracer data after a field demonstration of surfactant foam to remediate NAPL, and (9) experiments at elevated temperatures. The authors have developed a new analytic approach that has several advantages over existing approaches for inversion of tracer data. First, the technique utilizes an extremely efficient three-dimensional multiphase streamline simulator as a forward model. Second, the parameter sensitivities are formulated in terms of one-dimensional integrals of analytic functions along the streamlines. Thus, the computation of sensitivities for all model parameters requires only a single simulation run to construct the velocity field and generate the streamlines. The inversion of tracer data is then performed using a two-step iterative linearization that involves first lining-up the breakthrough times at the producing wells and then matching the production history. Their approach follows from an analogy between streamlines and ray tracing in seismology. The inverse method is analogous to seismic waveform inversion and thus, allows them to utilize efficient methods from geophysical imaging. The new

Conceptual and mathematical models are presented that explain tracer breakthrough tailing in the absence of significant matrix diffusion. Model predictions are compared to field results from radially convergent, weak-dipole, and push-pull tracer experiments conducted in a saturated crystalline bedrock. The models are based upon the assumption that flow is highly channelized, that the mass of tracer in a channel is proportional to the cube of the mean channel aperture, and the mean transport time in the channel is related to the square of the mean channel aperture. These models predict the consistent -2 straight line power law slope observed in breakthrough from radially convergent and weak-dipole tracer experiments and the variable straight line power law slope observed in push-pull tracer experiments with varying injection volumes. The power law breakthrough slope is predicted in the absence of matrix diffusion. A comparison of tracer experiments in which the flow field was reversed to those in which it was not indicates that the apparent dispersion in the breakthrough curve is partially reversible. We hypothesize that the observed breakthrough tailing is due to a combination of local hydrodynamic dispersion, which always increases in the direction of fluid velocity, and heterogeneous advection, which is partially reversed when the flow field is reversed. In spite of our attempt to account for heterogeneous advection using a multipath approach, a much smaller estimate of hydrodynamic dispersivity was obtained from push-pull experiments than from radially convergent or weak dipole experiments. These results suggest that although we can explain breakthrough tailing as an advective phenomenon, we cannot ignore the relationship between hydrodynamic dispersion and flow field geometry at this site. The design of the tracer experiment can severely impact the estimation of hydrodynamic dispersion and matrix diffusion in highly heterogeneous geologic media.

The classic work by G.I. Taylor describes the enhanced longitudinal diffusivity of a passive tracer in laminar pipe flow. Much work since then has gone into extending this result particularly in calculating the evolution of the scalar variance. However, less work has been done to describe the asymmetry of the distribution. We present the results from a modeling effort for the general picture of how the higher moments of the tracer distribution depend on geometry. We do this via analysis of ``channel-limiting'' geometries (rectangular ducts and elliptical pipes parameterized by their aspect ratio), using both new analytical tools and Monte-Carlo simulation, which have revealed a wealth of nontrivial behavior of the distributions at short and intermediate time. Funding from NSF grant Nos.: RTG DMS-0943851, CMG ARC-1025523, and DMS-1009750.

The mineralogical and trace element composition of regoliths is a source of potential tracers of water behaviour in catchment systems. We propose an assessment of the most suitable spatial tracers for water collection, mixing, storage and release processes by incorporating geochemical signatures derived from trace and major elements to the description of sources and pathways of water contributions in the stream. To date, stable isotopes are widely used to trace water sources and water transit times but they are still missing a complementary tool which allows for the identification of end-members and the understanding of mixing processes within the regolith. Trace elements are known to be powerful and precise geochemical tracers of environmental processes and, therefore, they can be useful indicators of the spatial origin and evolution of regolith materials and water chemistry. We studied a whole slate regolith profile for its mineralogical, major and trace element composition. The different regolith components were subjected to a leaching experiment in order to identify chemical zonations within and assess the potential elements mobility. Rain, soil, stream and ground waters were collected at the same location than the regolith system over 4 years, analysed for their trace and major elements composition and compared to regolith and regolith leachates data. The results deliver valuable information on exchange processes at the water-mineral interface in the different zones of the regolith. The geochemical scheme of a complete regolith and the waters it holds is here presented to prove the efficiency of trace and major elements as complementary hydrological and geochemical tracers of water migration throughout a regolith till the stream.

A tracertest using both bromide and heat tracers conducted at the Integrated Field Research Challenge site in Hanford 300 Area (300A), Washington, provided an instrument for evaluating the utility of bromide and heat tracers for aquifer characterization. The bromide tracer data were critical to improving the calibration of the flow model complicated by the highly dynamic nature of the flow field. However, most bromide concentrations were obtained from fully screened observation wells, lacking depth-specific resolution for vertical characterization. On the other hand, depth-specific temperature data were relatively simple and inexpensive to acquire. However, temperature-driven fluid density effects influenced heat plume movement. Moreover, the temperature data contained “noise” caused by heating during fluid injection and sampling events. Using the hydraulic conductivity distribution obtained from the calibration of the bromide transport model, the temperature depth profiles and arrival times of temperature peaks simulated by the heat transport model were in reasonable agreement with observations. This suggested that heat can be used as a cost-effective proxy for solute tracers for calibration of the hydraulic conductivity distribution, especially in the vertical direction. However, a heat tracertest must be carefully designed and executed to minimize fluid density effects and sources of noise in temperature data. A sensitivity analysis also revealed that heat transport was most sensitive to hydraulic conductivity and porosity, less sensitive to thermal distribution factor, and least sensitive to thermal dispersion and heat conduction. This indicated that the hydraulic conductivity remains the primary calibration parameter for heat transport.

Tracer technology can be successfully applied to many leak-checking and monitoring evaluations of operating systems (e.g., building HVACs), manufacturing processes and products (e.g., air conditioners), and subsurface components and systems (e.g., underground storage tanks). Perfluorocarbon tracer (PFT) technology is the most sensitive of all tracer technologies because the ambient background levels of the five (5) routinely-used PFTs are in the range of parts per 10{sup 15} parts of air (i.e., parts per quadrillion-ppq) and this technology's instrumentation can measure down to those levels. The effectiveness of this technology is achieved both in terms of cost (very little PFT need to be used) and detectability; for example, very small leaks can be rapidly detected. The PFT compounds, which are environmentally and biologically safe to use, are commercially available as are the sampling and analysis instrumentation. This presentation concerns (1) the steps being taken to commercialize this technology, (2) new applications of processes currently under study, and (3) applications in areas of use that will be particularly beneficial to the environment. 21 refs., 2 figs., 2 tabs.

The accurate simulation of the transport of a tracer released into an urban area requires sufficiently high model resolution to resolve buildings and urban street canyons. Within the authors' group a modeling effort has been underway to develop a model -- termed HIGRAD -- capable of simulating flow at the high spatial resolution required within the urban environment. HIGRAD uses state-of-the-art numerical techniques to accurately simulate the regions of strong shear found near edges of buildings. HIGRAD also employs a newly developed radiation package which in addition to standard shortwave and longwave heating/cooling effects can account for the shadowing effects of building complexes on the urban flow field. Idealized simulations have been conducted which clearly illustrate the role radiation plays in transport and dispersion in an urban setting. The authors have also modeled the flow of an inert tracer in a realistic, complex urban environment. Complex flow/building interactions were produced during the simulation and these interactions had a significant impact on the transport of the tracer.

Magnetic tracers can be observed in the interior of the human body to give information about their quantity, position and state of order. With the aim of detecting and studying the degree of disorder of these tracers after they have been previously magnetized inside the stomach, a system composed of magnetization coils and magnetic detectors was developed. Helmholtz coils of diameter 84 cm were used to magnetize the sample and the remanent magnetization (RM) was detected with two first-order gradiometric fluxgate arrays each with a 15 cm base line, sensitivity of 0.5 nT and common mode rejection (CMR) of at least 10. The system allows simultaneous measurement in the anterior and posterior projections of the stomach. Measurements of the time evolution of the RM were performed in vitro and in normal subjects after the ingestion of a test meal labelled with magnetic particles. The data were fitted with an exponential curve and the relaxation time tau was obtained. Initial studies were performed to ascertain the action of a drug that is known to affect the gastric motility, showing that the decay of the remanent magnetization was indeed due to stomach contractions. PMID:10442706

Data useful to evaluate the effectiveness of or to design an enhanced recovery process (the recovery process involving mobilizing and moving hydrocarbons through a hydrocarbon-bearing subterranean formation from an injection well to a production well by injecting a mobilizing fluid into the injection well) are obtained by a process which comprises sequentially: determining hydrocarbon saturation in the formation in a volume in the formation near a well bore penetrating the formation, injecting sufficient of the mobilizing fluid to mobilize and move hydrocarbons from a volume in the formation near the well bore penetrating the formation, and determining by the single well tracer method a hydrocarbon saturation profile in a volume from which hydrocarbons are moved. The single well tracer method employed is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 3,623,842. The process is useful to evaluate surfactant floods, water floods, polymer floods, CO.sub.2 floods, caustic floods, micellar floods, and the like in the reservoir in much less time at greatly reduced costs, compared to conventional multi-well pilot test.

We have used forced Rayleigh scattering to measure tracer diffusion coefficients in water and other liquids. The tracer molecule is the azobenzene derivative methyl red (MR). In one set of experiments diffusion was measured at different temperatures to test the Cohen-Turnbull (CT) free volume diffusion theory. It was found that eight solvents were in reasonable agreement with CT, but the relevant energy in water was smaller by an order of magnitude. We believe this is due to the ``zero-point'' free volume that water would possess, due to its H-bonds, even at the glass transition temperature, and to the ability of MR to diffuse along its plane. In a second set of experiments we studied diffusion in aqueous and non-aqueous mixtures. The non-aqueous mixtures are in good agreement with free volume theory, but the aqueous mixtures show large disagreement. We suggest this is caused by the formation of two solvent shells in the aqueous mixtures, driven by the hydrophobicity of MR and water-amphiphile hydrogen bonding. NSF Research at Undergraduate Institutions.

The purpose of this work is to identify and characterize candidate conservative organic tracers for use as hydrologic tracers for experiments to be conducted at the Yucca Mountain C-well complex. During this quarter the main effort was directed towards rewriting the quality assurance program in preparation for a review and audit by the USGS. However, due to budget constraints the review and audit were not carried out. The tracer QA plan and standard operating procedures (SOPs) were revised and copies are included in the report. Instrumental problems were encountered and corrected with the addition of new integration and sample control software. In the sampling, there was an unexplained peak in the chromatograms of the tracers being tested in the light tuff. This was not correctable and these experiments will be repeated in the next quarter.

The bromide anion has been used extensively as a tracer for mapping the flow of groundwater. It has proven to be both a safe and reliable groundwater tracer. The goal in this study is to find several tracing compounds with characteristics similar to the bromide anion to be used in multiple well tracing tests. Four groups of fluorinated organic acids were selected as candidates for groundwater tracers. These groups include fluorinated benzoic acids (FBA), fluorinated salicylic acids (FSA), fluorinated toluic acids (FTA), and fluorinated cinnamic acids (FCA). These compounds have been shown to move readily with the flow of water and do not adsorb to soil. They are also non-toxic. In this study, the retention of the fluorinated organic acids on to a soil column is compared to that of the bromide ion. The time required for the elution of each analyte from the soil column is measured using a UV-Vis detector. The soils consist of the light, medium, and dark tuffs used in the batch study. The work performed during this quarter consists of the continuation of the batch studies for the fluorinated benzoic acids and column studies for several potential tracer compounds.

Between 5 January 1987 and 29 March 1987, there were 33 releases of different tracers from each of two sites: Glasgow, MT and St. Cloud, MN. The perfluorocarbon tracers were routinely released in a 3-h period every 2.5 days, alternating between daytime and night-time tracer releases. Ground-level air samples of 24-h duration were taken at 77 sites mostly located near rawinsonde stations east of 105°W and between 26°N and 55°N. Weekly air samples were taken at 12 remote sites between San Diego, CA and Pt. Barrow, AK and between Norway and the Canary Islands. Short-term 6-h samples were collected at ground level and 200 m AGL along an arc of five towers between Tulsa, OK and Green Bay, WI. Aircraft sampling within several hundred kilometers of both tracer release sites was used to establish the initial tracer path. Experimental design required improved sampler performance, new tracers with lower atmospheric backgrounds, and improvements in analytic precision. The advances to the perfluorocarbon tracer system are discussed in detail. Results from the tracer sampling showed that the average and peak concentrations measured over the daily ground-level sampling network were consistent with what would be calculated using mass conservative approaches. however, ground-level samples from individual tracer patterns showed considerable complexity due to vertical stability or the interaction of the tracer plumes with low pressure and frontal systems. These systems could pass right through the tracer plume without appreciable effect. Aircraft tracer measurements are used to confirm the initial tracer trajectory when the narrow plume may miss the coarser spaced ground-level sampling network. Tower tracer measurements showed a more complex temporal structure than evident from the longer duration ground-level sampling sites. Few above background plume measurements were evident in the more distant remote sampling network due to larger than expected uncertainties in the ambient

An ideal positron emission tomography (PET) tracer should be highly extractable by the myocardium and able to provide high-resolution images, should enable quantification of absolute myocardial blood flow (MBF), should be compatible with both pharmacologically induced and exercise-induced stress imaging, and should not require an on-site cyclotron. The PET radionuclides nitrogen-13 ammonia and oxygen-15 water require an on-site cyclotron. Rubidium-82 may be available locally due to the generator source, but greater utilization is limited because of its relatively low myocardial extraction fraction, long positron range, and generator cost. Flurpiridaz F 18, a novel PET tracer in development, has a high-extraction fraction, short positron range, and relatively long half-life (as compared to currently available tracers), and may be produced at regional cyclotrons. Results of early clinical trials suggest that both pharmacologically and exercise-induced stress PET imaging protocols can be completed more rapidly and with lower patient radiation exposure than with single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) tracers. As compared to SPECT images in the same patients, flurpiridaz F 18 PET images showed better defect contrast. Flurpiridaz F 18 is a potentially promising tracer for assessment of myocardial perfusion, measurement of absolute MBF, calculation of coronary flow reserves, and assessment of cardiac function at the peak of the stress response. PMID:22259007

Water cooled stator bars in power plant generators often fail during the maintenance cycle due to water leakage. After the hydrogen pressure in the generator shell has been released water can leak through cracks in the copper and through the insulation. Leaking bars, but not the leaks themselves, are detected with so-called ``hi-pot`` (high potential) tests where direct electrical current is applied to the stator bar windings. A study initiated by ConEd and Brookhaven`s Tracer Technology Center to explore the cause of these leakage problems to determine if the failures originate in the manufacturing process or are created in service by phase related torque stresses. To this purpose bars that had failed the hi-pot test were investigated first with the insulation in place and then stripped to the bare copper. The bars were pressurized with gases containing perfluorocarbon tracers and the magnitude and location of the leaks was detected by using tracers technology principles and instruments such as the ``double source`` method and the Dual Trap Analyzer. In the second part of the project the windings within a generator were tested in-situ for leaks during an outage using tracer principles. Recommendations are given suggesting the shut down of stator bar cooling water before hydrogen bleeding during outages and a revision of the current vent flow rate. The new standard should establish a reasonable leak rate for the stator bar windings proper and exclude leakage of pump seals and connections. Testing during the maintenance cycle in generators should include routine tracer leak detection following the hi-pot test.

Water cooled stator bars in power plant generators often fail during the maintenance cycle due to water leakage. After the hydrogen pressure in the generator shell has been released water can leak through cracks in the copper and through the insulation. Leaking bars, but not the leaks themselves, are detected with so-called hi-pot'' (high potential) tests where direct electrical current is applied to the stator bar windings. A study initiated by ConEd and Brookhaven's Tracer Technology Center to explore the cause of these leakage problems to determine if the failures originate in the manufacturing process or are created in service by phase related torque stresses. To this purpose bars that had failed the hi-pot test were investigated first with the insulation in place and then stripped to the bare copper. The bars were pressurized with gases containing perfluorocarbon tracers and the magnitude and location of the leaks was detected by using tracers technology principles and instruments such as the double source'' method and the Dual Trap Analyzer. In the second part of the project the windings within a generator were tested in-situ for leaks during an outage using tracer principles. Recommendations are given suggesting the shut down of stator bar cooling water before hydrogen bleeding during outages and a revision of the current vent flow rate. The new standard should establish a reasonable leak rate for the stator bar windings proper and exclude leakage of pump seals and connections. Testing during the maintenance cycle in generators should include routine tracer leak detection following the hi-pot test.